"It's a complete joke"- John Isner on Novak Djokovic earning more prize money at Madrid 2019 than Andrey Rublev in 2024

Former tennis player John Isner reacted to a journalist's quote regarding dropping the prize money for the tennis layers in the top-tier tournaments. The journalist compared Novak Djokovic's earnings when the Serb won the Madrid Open in 2019 and the money earned by Andrey Rublev, who won the 2024 Madrid Open.

In tennis, the prize money earned by a player is directly proportionate to their performance, with a scale of payments offered to the players before the tournament that designates how much they would earn if they reached a specific round in the tournament. The Grand Slams and Masters 1000 series on both the ATP and WTA tours are the most financially lucrative tournaments.

Recently, tennis journalist Jon Wertheim pointed out the fact that even though top players benevolently reappropriated the winner fees so that players losing in the early rounds would get a bit more, the amount of money being earned by tennis players now was significantly lower than before.

Writing on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Jon Wertheim compared the Madrid Open prize money Novak Djokovic and Andrey Rublev received when they won in 2019 and 2024, respectively. Highlighting the significant drop off in the prize money, he wrote,

"In 2019, @DjokerNole won the Madrid event and earned €1,202,520...The other day, Rublev won Madrid and earned €963,225....Yes, top players nobly agreed to reallocate prize money downward...But this is a considerable drop-off, esp. given the overall sports economy..."

Replying to the post, John Isner agreed with the journalist's observation and claimed that the prize money situation in tennis is a joke.

"Thank you, Jon. It’s a complete joke."

As per Statista.com, the overall sports industry revenue was valued at $403 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a rate of over 9% to reach a valuation of $680 billion by 2028.

Novak Djokovic established PTPA to ensure better distribution of resources in tennis ecosystem

Internazionali BNL D'Italia 2024 - Day Three

As one of the top players in the sport, Novak Djokovic has always been vocal about the rights of players who are on the ATP and WTA tours. The Serb has led the movement of players to get better access to the decision-making process that takes place at the upper echelons of professional tennis.

We’re trying to perfect our structure and management to the best of our abilities so that we show to the players primarily, but also to the whole ecosystem that we are credible and not going anywhere. We are going to fight for the players’ rights of having a more significant seat at the table of the decision-making process for both men and women." said Djokovic

For a long time, the Serb has been at the helm of such movements at the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA). The Serb thinks that the current time is the ideal period to get the appropriate rights for the players.

"The time has been ripe for quite a while. But in terms of the organization, time is ripe more than it ever was. We have a great team of people," Djokovic added.

Djokovic went on record and urged the younger players to be more vocal about their rights and to not fear about compromising their steady stature in the sport.