A top 300 ATP player has taken to social media to express his concern over prize money offerings in the sport, calling for Novak Djokovic’s Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) to help raise awareness of this issue.
Karue Sell, who is a Brazilian tennis player, achieved his career-high ranking yesterday of ATP No.299 after reaching the semi-finals of the Las Vegas Challenger just over a week ago.
However, the 30-year-old has still only earnt $61,183 in total prize money and has called for more to be done to help those lower down the rankings.
Fortunately for Sell, the majority of his earnings seem to come from his social media presence, with a YouTube Channel of 143,000 subscribers.
This is something that Sell acknowledged in his post on X (formerly known as Twitter), in a strongly worded message calling for more to be done.
“Today I broke 300 for the first time. Yet I’d make more money working at McDonald’s,” claimed Sell, following up with a laughing emoji. “I’m ok because of my online work but I feel for my peers. The level is so high now all the way to 400 (at least), go watch a challenger. Tennis outgrew the conventional top 100.”
He continued, “Not saying players need to make millions but they are being robbed across the board. Top 50 should make more, 100, 150, 200. There’s money. Would love to see some real change here @ptpaplayers Without a union players have no say. Just shut up and play.
“Starts with the fact that players now compete for fewer points in challengers while atps gained points. It was done without any notice to players. Here is an email, now go f yourself. BTW [By the way]. I believe guys in the top 100 (not like 25) are underpaid too. Guy 50 should be making 2-3 million a year. Top top guys don’t need but the middle pack needs more too.”
This post received a lot of attention on social media, and Sell followed it up with a further post revealing that he would not recommend it as a viable career to his children.
“Since this thread is growing, I just want to say I love the sport. I love playing, training, watching. But as a career it’s not one I’d recommend to my kids,” explained Sell. “I’m for the players as players are the product. Help the players and the product will grow.”
Sell will look to further improve his career-high ranking this week at the Antofagasta Challenger in Chile, as he begins his campaign against Tomas Farjat later today with just $2,175 up for grabs.
Inside the baseline…
There is definitely a growing concern about the viability for lower ranked players to continue playing the sport. The problem is that these players need to play lower ranked tournaments, but the gap between ATP Challenger points and main tour points has grown and therefore that makes the step up even more difficult. Sell has worked hard to earn income in another way on YouTube, but the majority of lower ranked players do not have that, and the Brazilian still travels alone without the presence of a coach or physio.
