Rafael Nadal snubs 2012 Queens Club tournament for £750K – Tennis News
Former world number one, Rafael Nadal, shifts his 2012 Wimbledon’s warm-up venues from Queen’s club, London, to Halle in Germany. Gerry Webber offered £750K payday to Nadal for snubbing his traditional warm-up venues and fly to
Halle, Germany. The huge cash-tag lured Nadal to make this decision.
Gerry Webber was forced to tempt Rafael Nadal because Former world number 1, Roger Federer, proved unreliable because he mostly pulled out of German tournament at the last moment, leaving the tournament officials is despair and
disbelief. It agitated the crowd who had bought tickets to watch their favourite tennis star live in action. This lead to a decreased turnover and it was getting increasingly difficult for the tournament directors to sustain a sizeable crowd during matches.
The London tournament director, Chris Kermode, was disappointed at Nadal’s decision and confessed that Nadal would not feature in the Wimbledon warm-up matches next year. He said “It’s disappointing, but we know how much he enjoys
our event and we hope to be welcoming him back soon”. Nadal never missed this tournament since 2006 except in 2009, when he was injured in Paris.
Spanish International won Queens Tournament in 2008 and was one of the tournament’s favourite again next year but his decision has now left the tournament with the likes of Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Roddick and the
reigning World Number 1, Novak Djokovic. According to Spaniard, the reason for switching places was some tax issues but it is pretty clear that the main reason for his venue transfer was the huge opportunity cost attached in playing at Queens.
The British tax law states “sports stars must pay a portion of tax on their worldwide endorsements, the proportion determined by how much time they compete in a year in Britain. They must also pay around half of their appearance
fee”. This law was the reason for the non-participation of the sprint Olympic champion, Usain Bolt, in the London Diamond League meeting in 2010.
King of clay has always practice in Queens Club but ever since Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has taken over the ownership of this tournament, they have been trying their best to attract legitimate performers and paying them high
guarantees but it would be impossible for them to justify the amount of around £400K given to Rafael Nadal.
Two greats of tennis, Former world number 1’s, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are the most highly paid tennis celebrities and they have earned around $1million in participating in such events. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic haven’t
touched that mark and receive around $500K.
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