WTA, ATP, and ITF establish $6M fund for 800 tennis players

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) prepared a $6 million fund for 800 tennis players to help them amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

If evenly distributed, the 800 tennis players will receive $7,500 each and the tennis governing bodies will be monitoring the distribution to keep track.

With more than 30 tournaments canceled due to the pandemic, tennis players are stagnant with regards to their tournament earnings, thus, urging the tennis bodies to act.

Most low-ranked players are relying on tournament prize money for their earnings and the suspension of tennis matches since March has adversely affected the players’ finances.

“It’s obviously very unprecedented. Most tennis players…most of their income is basically 100% prize money. Not everyone has endorsement deals that have guaranteed money. So it’s obviously a really big struggle when there are no tournaments,” Mitchell Krueger, a 26-year-old American currently ranked 195th, said.