MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Male players at the Australian Open yesterday warned of future strikes over prize money and said a proposal to boycott the year’s first grand slam had been strongly endorsed but ultimately knocked down.
ATP members held a behind-closed-doors meeting on Saturday and backed a proposal not to play at Melbourne Park, Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky told Reuters in an interview.
Former world number three Nikolay Davydenko later hinted that players might strike at Indian Wells in California in March, a mandatory ATP event they must attend. “Some of the players were suggesting we’re not going to play here,” said world number 65 Stakhovsky, referring to Saturday’s meeting.
“There were enough (votes not to play) but it was just not right because we’re here and the Australian Open would have no chance to change anything.”
Players have complained about prize money for years, saying purses for the four grand slams were too small in relation to the revenue they brought in and too lop-sided in favour of the top competitors who regularly advance to the later stages.
The matter came to a head at Saturday’s meeting and 32nd seed Alex Bogomolov Jr of Russia tweeted over the weekend of a possible strike at Melbourne Park.
Davydenko said the players would have another meeting in Indian Wells and told the ATP to act.
“The ATP should try to do something between now and Indian Wells,” the Russian said.
The top players must compete in all the grand slams, eight Masters 1000 events, the season-ending World Tour Finals and a handful of lower-tier tournaments.
Stakhovsky said a majority of the leading players were sympathetic to the demands of the lower-ranked competitors
