ESPN.com - TENNIS - Kafelnikov stands by comments

 
Saturday, January 20
Kafelnikov stands by comments



MELBOURNE, Australia -- Yevgeny Kafelnikov insists tennis players are not getting their fair share of money, and he doesn't care what Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras think.

Kafelnikov, the outspoken Olympic champion, says the players deserve a bigger slice of the tournament purses.

Agassi, who beat Kafelnikov in the final at last year's Australian Open, says the Russian does not speak for the players on tour.

"He should take his prize money when he's done here and go buy himself some perspective," said Agassi, who has more than $20 million in career earnings.

"I'd be hard-pressed ever to spend time with a person who thinks that making hundreds of thousands of dollars is not enough money," he added.

Sampras, a winner of 13 Grand Slam titles, says calls for a bigger slice of the prize money amounted to greed.

"I think we're all overpaid," said Sampras, who has picked up more than $41 million in prize money since 1988.

Tennis officials contend it's a matter of market economics: The top players get paid much more because they attract spectators, generating more money for the sport. The Australian Open singles winners in the men's and the women's draw will receive $473,385.

"You have to be realistic," said Barbara Travers, spokeswoman for the International Tennis Federation. "Rookies in the NBA don't get paid anywhere near what they paid Michael Jordan."

Kafelnikov has earned more than $18 million in prize money and travels between tournaments in a private jet. He says he is a "standup guy and I say what I want." The 26-year-old Russian also says he doesn't "really care what the American democratic opinion is."

The only players objecting to his stance were the high-paid Americans, Kafelnikov said after rallying past Chris Woodruff of the United States to advance to the fourth round.

"Many other players in the locker room share my thoughts and I even got some support from the female locker room," he said.

"In some cases the prize money in the Grand Slams could go up," said Lindsay Davenport, the defending champion at the Australian Open. "I don't think that's outrageous although it sounds like it when a person reads it in the paper."

Woodruff says Kafelnikov was trying to make the point that relative to top golfers, tennis players were underpaid.

"I don't think that he necessarily meant that we're underpaid in general," he said. "I think he meant that relative to golf."

Woodruff says it is easy for Sampras to say players were overpaid considering his career earnings.

"I think everyone has to be realistic," he said. "It's a very, very nice lifestyle out here if you're successful, and we make, I think, we make a very nice living."

Jeff Tarango sparked the debate earlier in the week by suggesting in a newspaper column that players eliminated in the first round deserved a bigger cut of the profits generated by Grand Slams.

The 32-year-old American lost in the first round in Melbourne, earning $7,290. He has amassed more than $3.25 million in prize money since turning pro in 1989. He has been ousted in the first round in 25 Grand Slam tournaments.

"Jeff is a little extravagant in his ideas," South African veteran Wayne Ferreira said. '"It's pretty decent at this stage. Everybody gets paid a lot of money to do something they enjoy."

 




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