MUMBAI • Holding Grand Slams in costly bio-bubbles may not be sustainable for a second season despite the financial edge these major tennis tournaments enjoy over other events, ATP chief Andrea Gaudenzi has told Reuters.
The sport's big four tournaments have not been immune to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Wimbledon cancelled last year for the first time since World War II and the most recent editions of the other three held in bio-secure environments.
"Most of them run a federation as well so they're also in charge of tennis development throughout the country," Gaudenzi, the chairman of the men's tour, said recently. "I think a year is sustainable but two years in a row for the Grand Slams, or three, is definitely going to be a problem ... they also need some oxygen, absolutely."
Despite no ticket sales and a controlled health environment, the US Open was still able to pay almost 95 per cent of its prize money from 2019, while the cut for the delayed French Open last year was restricted to 11 per cent.
This year's opening Grand Slam in Melbourne offered the same prize money as the year before, but organisers have warned that might not be the case in 2022.
"It's an extremely challenging situation also for them," Gaudenzi added. "But obviously the Grand Slams are bigger, and obviously when you're bigger, you have broader shoulders.
"And it's a different economics. The four Grand Slams account for around 60 per cent of the entire volume of business for the tennis industry.
"They took a hit, but they have different economics. They have been capable of delivering 100 per cent prize money because they obviously have different profit margins than our tournaments."
Australian Open organisers ferried 1,200 people on 17 flights from eight countries and arranged 14 days of quarantine for all of them in January but it came at a cost. Tennis Australia exhausted cash reserves of A$80 million (S$83.2 million) and took a loan to tide it over until next year's event.
Gaudenzi said the centralised bubble formula, based on the model which allowed the 2019-20 season of America's National Basketball Association to be completed, had been examined as an option for wider use in tennis.
But he pointed out that "it would solve the travel problem ... but you will not solve the financial problem in our case".
"Actually (it) will be worse, so you lose more money by doing that," he added.
"Broadcast and media will renegotiate because you're moving the event to a different time zone... Ticketing, sponsorship and broadcast, (we need to) completely rebuild the platform from a revenue standpoint."
World No. 12 Denis Shapovalov has warned that events this year will continue to suffer high withdrawal rates because of the decrease in prize money.
The 21-year-old said most of the older top players "don't have a reason to go" to non-Grand Slam tournaments and that many more would skip events if they were not contractually obliged to compete by their sponsors.
Next week's Masters 1000 event in Miami has been hit by high-profile withdrawals, including Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem.
The total prize money at the Miami Open this year has gone down from US$16.7 million in 2019 to US$6.68 million. The event was one of the first cancelled last season because of the pandemic.
A singles champion in Dubai this week will make US$149,490 compared to the US$565,705 Novak Djokovic earned for lifting the trophy last year.
"There are going to be a lot of withdrawals and a lot of people not going to tournaments because the prize money is low," said Shapovalov, who advanced to the semi-finals in Dubai on Thursday.
"In a way, it's not motivating to play every week and play all the big tournaments because there's not really a lot in it for us other than the Slams at this point that are paying just as much or better, like in Australia this year...
"Hopefully the ATP or someone can do something to improve the prize money and bring it back to what it was, but it is what it is right now."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
