Updated April 27, 2020 11:04:00

Photo: Dominic Thiem believes lower-ranked players can survive without a relief fund. (AP: Andy Brownbill)

Australian Open finalist Dominic Thiem does not believe the top tennis players in the world should help fund lower-ranked professionals struggling financially while the ATP and WTA Tours are suspended because of coronavirus.

Men's world number one Novak Djokovic, who is the ATP Player Council president, last week urged players to contribute to a fund proposed by the sport's major governing bodies to help those affected by the shutdown, which may continue until at least mid-July.

A sliding funding scale is being considered, where the top five ranked players on the men's tour would chip in around $47,000 each, while those ranked between 50 and 100 would give up almost $8,000.

But world number three Thiem said he had no interest in contributing to a relief fund.

"No tennis player is fighting to survive, even those who are much lower-ranked. None of them are going to starve," Thiem told Austrian newspaper Krone.

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Thiem, who has earned more than $37 million during his career, said some players on the lower-tier circuits did not deserve handouts from the sport's top players because of their unprofessional attitude.

"There are many, many players who don't put the sport above everything else and don't live in a professional manner," he said.

"I don't really see why I should give such players money. I'd rather give money to people or organisations that really need it.

"None of us top players got anything handed to us, we all had to fight our way up. I don't have the guarantee in any job that I will do well and earn lots of money."

Nadal 'very pessimistic' about tennis return

Thiem's comments come as the ATP and WTA Tours continue to look at potential return dates, having been suspended since March.

Wimbledon has been cancelled, while French Open organisers have rescheduled their event for the end of September, shortly after the US Open.

Photo: Rafael Nadal feels professional tennis faces several hurdles before it can return. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

Rafael Nadal, a 19-time major singles winner, said he was not hopeful about professional tennis restarting any time soon.

"From my point of view, I'm very pessimistic that the circuit can resume normal activity," Nadal told a Spanish Tennis Federation online chat.

"In tennis, you need to travel every week, stay in hotels, go to different countries."

"Even if we play without an audience, to organise any event you need a lot of people involved, which cannot be ignored. At an international level, I see a serious problem."

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Nadal, 33, said that even when tennis did resume, the players would need time to recover their fitness levels.

"It will be a very tough job to regain fitness and you will need lots of discipline and lots of suffering," he said.

"The sooner we can resume activity the better. From the point of view about going back to competitions, I'm pessimistic.

"But there are many other things more important than tennis."

Reuters

Topics: tennis, covid-19, sport, austria

First posted April 27, 2020 10:59:58