MELBOURNE, Australia -- Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras,
the two greatest tennis players of the past decade, on Friday
slammed Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov for saying tennis players
were not paid enough money.
"He should take his prize money when he's done here and go
buy himself some perspective," said Agassi, the defending
Australian Open champion.
"I'd be hard-pressed ever to spend time with a person who
thinks that making hundreds of thousands of dollars is not
enough money," he told reporters.
Kafelnikov, a multimillionaire who uses his own jet to
travel to tournaments, raised eyebrows at the Australian Open on
Thursday when he said tennis fared poorly in comparison with
some other professional sports.
The former French and Australian Open champion and reigning
Olympic gold medalist who has won $18 million in prize money
said he was voicing an opinion held by many players.
Sampras and Agassi, winners of a staggering $62 million in
prize money between them, disagreed.
"I think we're all overpaid," Sampras said.
"We play a sport and we get paid very well. I don't play for
the prize money, I play for the titles," he said.
Jeff Tarango, No. 92 in the world, shares Kafelnikov's view. In
an article in an Australian newspaper earlier this week, he said
grassroots tennis would benefit if early losers got bigger payoffs.
He also said the big sports leagues in North America earmark a
much higher percentage of gross revenues to players compared to the
tennis world. Tennis officials say they spend a lot of money on
facilities and developing young talent.
Tarango lost in the first round in Melbourne, $7,290. He has
more than $3.25 million in prize money since turning pro in 1989.
The amount of money in international tennis came into stark
focus on Wednesday when Sampras said he had forfeited about $7
million in end-of-year bonuses from the game's governing body,
the ATP Tour, for not competing in all nine Masters Series
tournaments a season.
Sampras has cut back on the number of tournaments he enters
over the past five years to concentrate on the four Grand Slams.
"Yevgeny plays every week, so you know what he likes,"
Sampras said.
Players often earn many times more than their prize money in
endorsements and sponsorship contracts, with the amount of money
in the game allowing the best players to live privileged lives.
Women's world No. 3 Venus Williams last year signed a
five-year deal with Reebok worth
$40 million, the richest deal by any woman in sport.
Agassi suggested Kafelnikov's comments were disrespectful to
the game's fans and said he had told the Russian not to speak on
his behalf.
"The fans deserve a lot of respect. They pay for the tickets
and they come out and they make it possible for us to play
tennis for a living," said Agassi, who beat Kafelnikov in last
year's Australian Open final.
Kafelnikov had said tennis players fared poorly in
comparison with professional golfers.
"If you look at the golfers, we are taking an extreme
example now of course, the golfers make $540,000 a week to the
winner," he said. "And this is the lowest tournament that they
have on the U.S. Tour."
"If you look at the tennis players, to win a tournament, win
five matches (at the) absolutely lowest level tournament you
make only $42,000. I think it is quite bizarre to see that kind
of money in a tennis game," Kafelnikov said.
Kafelnikov, the 1999 Australian Open champion, hoped tennis
fans would not judge him harshly for speaking his mind.
"It would be a shame to see the public lose sympathy in me
just because I am making such a statement," said Kafelnikov, who
guaranteed himself $18,172 in prize money by
reaching the third round in Melbourne.
Defending women's champion Lindsay Davenport voiced some
support for Kafelnikov's claim.
"I think tennis is one of the few sports where you have to
go out and earn your money," said the world No. 2.
"You have got to look at how much money TV is putting in,
how many spectators are coming in and paying for things and it
is pretty much all because of the players," she said.
Davenport said the U.S. Open organizers make hundreds of millions of dollars, but
award only $750,000 to the winners.
"In some cases, the prize money in the Grand Slams could go
up," she said. "I don't think that's outrageous, although it
sounds like it when a person reads it in the paper."
The men's and women's champions in Melbourne will this year
each collect $465,080.
In total the men's ATP Tour carries prize money of $65.5
million, excluding the four Grand Slams.
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