Rafael Nadal discusses 50-50 profit share between players and ATP with ATP chief
ATP
Rafael Nadal spoke to the ATP chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi, about the ATP's new profit-sharing model.
As someone who has won 22 Grand Slam titles, Nadal is one of the leading voices on the ATP Tour. He's one of the most experienced players, and with his voice, he can shape a better future for the next generations of tennis players.
The prize money debate has always been very loud in tennis, as many players at the lower level of competition can't make a living just by playing tennis.
That's why the ATP came with a new 50-50 profit-sharing plan. It's called OneVision. The ATP plans to offer players a split of the profit made. After the announcement of this plan, Gaudenzi spoke to Nadal for ATPTour.com, sharing his views about OneVision.
"I think it can be game-changing for the relationship and trust between players and tournaments because we want to provide the visibility to the players on the economics of the tournaments and also have players share our future success. If the tournaments do well financially, the players will get 50 per cent of the profits on top of the prize money."
"Let's work together to improve our sport, instead of fighting with each other all the time. Because the competition is soccer, football, American football, golf, not competing against each other."
While Gaudenzi sees the sport from his office and through numbers, Nadal is the one who knows how it feels like to battle it out on the tennis court and then be rewarded for the efforts.
That's why Nadal was happy to learn that the ATP is doing something to help tennis players earn more money.
"Oh, I agree with that. I think we lose a lot of energy fighting between each other; tournaments are fighting for themselves and players are fighting for ourselves."
"The Masters 1000s are huge events. Sometimes from my personal perspective it is Grand Slams and the rest of the tournaments much lower, so I think our goal from being the ATP is to put our tournaments closer and closer to the Slams in terms of promotion and importance. We need to encourage the tournaments to keep growing."
