With careers spent scratching around dusty outposts, sometimes with “just $100” in their pockets, tennis’ unheralded army of foot soldiers ...
With careers spent scratching around dusty outposts, sometimes with “just $100” in their pockets, tennis’ unheralded army of foot soldiers claim they are struggling to afford food after being made unemployed overnight by the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, Georgian player Sofia Shapatava is pleading with the International Tennis Federation to dig deep and help out the hundreds of players who lost their livelihoods when the men’s and women’s tours went into a three-month lockdown.
“Players lower ranked than 250 will not be able to buy food in two-three weeks’ time,” warned Shapatava, who is not optimistic the ITF will look favourably on her plea. “I honestly don’t think so,” she said. “They replied that their plate is full and they will come back to me as soon as they can. But after that email they did not reply with anything.”
Shapatava, the world No 371, is a 16-year veteran of the tour. But she plays mostly secondary ITF events, a world away from the gilded Grand Slam world inhabited by multi-millionaires Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Shapatava has banked $354,000 in career prize money from almost 1,500 singles and doubles matches. Barely $3,000 has come her way since the turn of the year after events...
