A Quote by Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Tennis is not a contract sport and we really rely on the WTA and ATP tours to be up and running so players can earn prize money to make a living.
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Tennis Australia really led the charge as far as upping the prize money and trying to do the right thing by the players. They also led the way so women have equal prize money in all the grand slams too.
I do understand that when someone gives you a [expletive] load of money, you take that money. Someone like Larry Ellison wants to invest into his event and make it the biggest possible, and he gets stopped by the ATP. If you're a start-up, what would make you want to navigate through that and to go through that firing line? How can you step into tennis with any confidence? It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.
I became president of the players' association and was willing to have conversations with influential people about equal prize money or how the tour could be promoted and structured in a way to make women's tennis better.
The best football players in the world still earn very little money compared to people who really earn money.
Every time the ATP or WTA speak about changing something, you see the reaction. So I think they're doing a good job because those people are still watching tennis 40 years later and they are still fans so I'm not sure they should change because I don't know how the fans would feel.
There are certainly great cities in America that don't have ATP and WTA events. Our fans are very provincial. They want American champions.
Everybody can go out and buy fancy things and, while I don't have a problem with that, I do think players should earn the right to say 'I deserve this big contract and all this money'.
I think that the ATP and the WTA are doing a good job because they're satisfying their fans, and I am one of their fans.
Some folks call tennis a rich people's sport or a white person's game. I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do. Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis. You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.
I admire Indian cricket because of the way the sport is run there and how the money they earn is invested back into the game and players.
When you look at other sports, like golf, the players earn a lot more money without running around.
Professional tennis has become an extremely physical and unbelievably competitive sport. Injuries are the bane of tennis players, and it goes with the territory.
People in tennis, they've been in a certain bubble for so long they don't even know who they are, because obviously it's just been tennis, tennis, tennis. And let it be just tennis, tennis, tennis. Be locked into that. But when tennis is done, then what? It's kinda like: Let's enjoy being great at the sport.
Skating was popular, but it wasn't mainstream. It had this underground following, and you could go on tours, win decent prize money, and make royalties from signature products - that's how I came to buy a house when I was a senior in high school.
As a retailer, we want everyone out there to earn more money, but then if you're running a business, and we can't make money because the wages are too high, that's a problem.
Nothing against the Olympics. I played in 2012 and it was an incredible experience. It's different for tennis players than for swimmers and track and field athletes. That's the pinnacle of their sport and not so much the pinnacle of tennis.
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