Maria Sharapova is unsure about the pay boost from the Australian Open officials – Tennis News
Former world number one, Maria Sharapova, seems a bit unpleased by the decision of the Australian Open officials to raise the pay of the first round losers. She doesn’t think that it’s the right idea to tilt the overall prize money
distribution to the opening round losers. She stated, “I don’t know if I agree with a raise for a first-round loss. I think the compensation as you win more rounds is right, but I’m not sure about the first rounds."
The 25-year-old Russian superstar is at Istanbul for the year-end Women Tennis Association Championships. She commenced the tournament with a bang; smashing 39 winners and 23 off them from her fierce forehand. She outplayed the
seventh ranked Italian star, Sara Errani, and cleared the first hurdle in just over an hour and a half.
Commenting about the barrage of winners that was launched towards Errani, Sharapova said, “I wasn't counting them, but I guess it's a good number to have. I don't think I did that in the first four, five games - as the match went
on I certainly didn't want points going way too long against her. I wanted to be the more aggressive one.”
It is interesting to know that the Russian superstar is not too content from the decision of the Australian Open officials. The main thought behind that decision was to avoid that potential strike by the lower ranked players who
find it difficult to cover up the cost of living and travelling by the distributions. It must be difficult for the less talented players to keep pace with such an expensive travelling and living expenses that proliferate with the passage of every day due to
hyper inflation in most of the economies of the world.
Sharapova might have some different point of view. She wasn’t happy from the pay boost but did appreciate the officials on taking such an initiative that was already in action for the rest of the three Grand Slam Championships;
French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. The 26% raise was allotted for the first round Wimbledon losers that meant an increase of pound 14,500 in the earnings.
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