Offer of $800,000 increase in prize money from Indian Wells rejected by ATP – Tennis News
Association of Tennis Professionals officials didn’t accept the offer of an increase in the $800,000 increase in the prize money of the BNP Paribas Open – Indian Wells. The reason put forth by the officials was that the event organizers
didn’t distribute the overall increase as per the policy that is being agreed by the players and the federation.
Indian Wells organizers wanted to distribute the major portion of the increase amongst the first three round winners and also enhanced the prize money of quarter-finalists as well as semi-finalists. The same proposal was put forth
for the Women Tennis Association’s draw. Hence, the organizers were forgoing $1,600,000 money in total and were willing to distribute that amongst the players but their distribution plan wasn’t accepted by the ATP officials.
The proposal’s acceptance was voted 3-3 by board of Association of Tennis Professionals whereas the Chief Executive Officer decided not to take part in the voting process and abstained from it. On Wednesday, the ATP Tour’s executive
vice president, Kate Gordon, issued a statement in which he clarified the reason of not going through with the increase of prize money. The abstract of statement is shown below:
“We welcome tournaments increasing prize money, however, in this case, a tournament is proposing a distribution that is not in line with the ATP rules that players and tournaments themselves have agreed, and which every other tournament
on Tour follows. The ATP distribution model is designed in part to protect the middle ranked players’ share of prize money, and more evenly distribute prize money throughout every round in a tournament. We would be happy to approve a prize money increase,
if it complies with ATP rules on distribution.”
In this year’s edition of the tournament, the winner of BNP Paribas Open took away a total of 1 million dollars in prize money and the raise was incorporated to make sure that both ATP and WTA champions received equal amount of
prize money contrary to the previous year’s distribution in which the men’s champion received $611,000 whereas the women’s champion bagged $700,000. However, lower ranked players were not happy with the decision because they received no benefits from the increase.
Same proposal is sent to the Women Tennis Association in which an increase of $800,000 is offered. However, CEO Raymond Moore proclaimed, “The WTA has provided Indian Wells acknowledgment of receipt of the request, the board has
not formally reviewed the request to date,” on Tuesday. Next year’s edition of Indian Wells is scheduled to be played from 4-17th March.
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