Djokovic fears hundreds of professionals for the future: “Too few players can live off it” | Tennis

Novak Djokovic recently founded a new tennis players’ union, the Professional Tennis Players Association, and he clearly takes his pioneering role as the world’s No. 1 seriously. In the run-up to the Masters, the last major tournament of the season, he stood up for his colleagues at the bottom of the ladder.

“It’s great that we’ve been able to play major tournaments since the restart, but it’s worrying that at the Futures level, say the start-up level for the pros, there are almost no tournaments,” says Djokovic.

“Don’t forget that that’s the biggest group of professional tennis players. I’ve spoken to a lot of players who are 500th or below and they are begging for tournaments.”

Djokovic sees an even bigger problem. “There must be a system that makes it possible that many more tennis players and tennis players can make a living from their sport. At the moment there are maybe 200.”

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