Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are rarely criticised, and are absolute role models for many. However, one tennis pro is now coming down hard on them, while positively singling out another colleague
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are role models for many, simply considered the figureheads of tennis. It is therefore all the more surprising that the Argentine tennis pro Marco Trungelliti is now harshly criticising the two tennis icons.
“Whether you like it or not. They are partly to blame for how bad the system is. Because they have not been able to speak up even once and fight for the rights of the players,” the Argentine stressed to La Nación. “If they ever did anything, it was only internally, but it didn’t change anything.”
What he means by this is the difficult circumstances for tennis players who are not competing for the big prize money in the biggest tournaments. While tennis stars and top players at the top rake in millions through prize and sponsorship money, players beyond the top 100 struggle with low prize money.
“Prize money embarrassing – despite most golden era in tennis history “
“As players they can be very good, but as people trying to improve the system in general, they seem very poor to me,” Trungelliti continued his criticism. The current 236th-ranked player in the world (112th in 2019) would have liked the two tennis legends to have used their charisma more to help underclass players.
“Just this year, the prize money for the Challenger tournaments was changed a little bit, but it’s still embarrassing, even though we’re supposedly past the most golden era in the history of tennis,” complained the 33-year-old, who singled out another tennis player for praise for his commitment.
So, according to him, Novak Djokovic is “indispensable” and a role model in fighting tennis inequality, as the 24-time Grand Slam champion launched the Professionl Tennis Players Association (PTPA) two years ago and has been fighting for higher prize money in the lower segments of tennis ever since.
