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John Isner: ‘Some players are questioning why prize money is down so much’


John Isner says unhappy players on the ATP Tour want greater transparency in tennis more than they want a restoration of larger prize money pots.

ATP events have seen prize money slashed since the coronavirus pandemic, with Miami down nearly 80% on what it used to be.

Much of that is due to tournaments not being able to sell tickets, although Isner has called for a full audit of ATP finances to see if it is truly fair to keep asking players to take the hit.

“I think for some of the players, it’s not so much about the prize money,” Isner said. “We don’t really want to make it about that.

“Maybe it’s about tour structure that the players would like to have better knowledge of as to why decisions are made, what went into making each decision.

“There’s just a little bit of uncertainty about how those numbers came into play, why the prize money is what it is.

“Of course, we would like to be playing for more, but we understand with the loss of ticketing revenue, our purses are going to go down,” he said.

“But there are some players that have questions about why it was down so much. The tour has implemented a strategy that is keeping the lower rounds pretty similar.

“The prize money in the quarters, semis and finals, has been chopped quite a bit. The top players in our game have taken a big hit as far as the prize money is concerned recently.”

Despite his frustrations, John Isner says the communication between players and the ATP has been good lately, and he hopes it can lead to a greater understanding from everyone.

“Look, there’s always going to be some things that players are unhappy about,” he said.

“I do think recently the players have felt like the tour has been more transparent with them. We’re trying to understand the process a bit more.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.