Ines Ibbou, a young Algerian tennis player who hit back at Dominic Thiem for saying he did not want to give money to lowly-ranked players, ...
Ines Ibbou, a young Algerian tennis player who hit back at Dominic Thiem for saying he did not want to give money to lowly-ranked players, has drawn support from Venus Williams as well as her country’s government.
“Dear Dominic,” Ibbou, who is 620th in the WTA singles rankings, said in an emotional nine-minute video posted on social media, “what would have been my career if I was in your shoes?”
In April, Thiem, an Austrian ranked third in the men’s game, said he was not happy with a plan supported by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal for top players to help those lower down the rankings who had lost their tournament income because of the coronavirus shutdown of tennis.
“None of them are going to starve,” Thiem told an Austrian newspaper, explaining that “many, many” of those players had not made it to the top because they “don’t put the sport above everything else”.
“I wouldn’t really see why I should give such players money,” he went on. “I would rather give money to people or organisations that really need it.”
My open letter to @ThiemDomi
— Ines Ibbou (@InesIbbou) May 9, 2020
Some other voices have to be heard also... #improveTennis #Savetennis @ITF_Tennis @ITFprocircuit @WTA @atp @BBCSport @lequipe @TennisEurosport @ajplusfrancais @ajplus https://t.co/pqy9mOxkmQ
In her response, the 21-year-old Ibbou said life was tough for an African tennis player....
