The top two men’s tennis players, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, have started their journey at the Qatar Open on a positive note. Alcaraz defeated Arthur Rinderknech 6-4, 7-6 in the round of 32 on Tuesday, while Sinner breezed past Thomas Machac 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the round of 16 on Monday.
While the duo is playing well, a disturbing statistic has emerged from Doha. According to Gazzetta, Sinner and Alcaraz will be paid $1.2 million each merely for making an appearance at the Qatar Open, while the winner will receive $529,945 in prize money. As a result, Sincaraz, as the duo is famously called, faced flak from fans, calling it greedy and unfair business.
“So unfair and disrespectful to other players who are competing,” one fan commented.
“Absolutely absurd. Typical tennis mafia, deciding who gets to be on top,” another fan commented.
“Should be made illegal. Very greedy business practice,” yet another fan commented.
Screenshot of fan comments on the Instagram post
Other fans called out the sheer lack of discrimination faced by women’s tennis players, pointing out the possibility of harsh points deductions for withdrawing from a tournament. In contrast, the top two in men’s tennis are paid millions just for appearing at one.
“What? So women are being punished for skipping tournaments, and these 2 guys are getting millions for just appearing out there?” one fan commented.
“20 years time when kids are learning about capitalist greed, and they start giving Jannik Sinner as an example,” another fan commented.
“They need to dismantle these tennis orgs, and I’m serious… It’s a money mafia,” yet another fan commented.
While fans’ ire at the situation is understandable, the ultimate call belongs to the organizers of an event, and while ATP can mandate some rules on court, they can hardly control who the organizers wish to pay a hefty appearance fee to for being the best in the sport in recent years.
Carlos Alcaraz to Face Royer, While Jannik Sinner Will be up Against Popyrin in the Round of 16
Sincaraz will play their respective round of 16 matches at the Doha Open on Wednesday. Sinner will be first on center court, where he will take on Alexei Popyrin, while Alcaraz will follow next, to go up against Valentin Royer.
Sinner and Alcaraz are in line to face each other once again in the summit clash of a tournament. If they reach the final, this would be the duo’s first final of the season, since Sinner failed to defend his crown in Melbourne after going down to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.
While Alcaraz will aim to carry his winning momentum going, Sinner will be aiming to get some valuable points off his Spaniard rival to close the game in the ATP rankings.
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