Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe battled in the 2022 Japan Open final as the first mentioned won the match in two tie-breaks and lifted his third title this year.
It's been a sensational season for both Americans as they are a bright light of hope for all fans in the Unites States. While Frances Tiafoe played his maiden Grand Slam semifinal, Taylor Fritz became the first player since John Isner to break into the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings as he will move to spot no. 8.
However, this year's Japan Open champion received almost $20,000 dollars less in prize money than Daniil Medvedev received in 2018 and that's something Reilly Opelka didn't like.
"So let me get this straight. My boys battle it out today in the final of Tokyo in front of a packed house, one of the biggest events on ATP Tour and they are playing for LESS $ than the guys in 2018?"
It's important to mention that overall prize money distributed increased by more than $170,000 and so the fact that champion earns less is mostly because of new system of allocation that wants to create better opportunities for lower-ranked players that lose early.
For example, prize money for losing in the final of qualifying increased from $2,920 to $7,810 and player that lose in the first round get $15,235 instead of $13,200. However, thanks to increase in sponsorships and broadcast costs, the American would still expect the prize money to increase even more, when he stated:
"The systematic suppression of player compensation is real. U can say whatever you want about the past 4 year period but sponsorship, data, broadcast, gambling revenues have all gone up, plus sky rocketing sanction values. And it is beyond disproportionate to player compensation," Opelka added.
He also mentioned that he's not against the initiative to reward players in qualifying more as he stated: "My argument has never been about the distribution of prize money. Its about the totality of prize money at every level and how it is fundamentally suppressed insuring the sports suits benefit disproportionally from our talent."
"I'm just keeping it real, someones gotta do it otherwise players will continue to be taken advantage of. I didn't join twitter to make fans. If I did I would just tweet about wearing masks and being vaxxed and have all the tennis twitter love in the world," Reilly Opelka concluded.
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