Federer, Nadal never said anything... not able to open their mouths even once: Novak Djokovic's fight for players' rights hailed by Marco Trungelliti
Novak Djokovic has garnered praise from Argentine professional tennis player Marco Trungelliti for his advocacy of players' rights, particularly in contrast to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Trungelliti, who was forced to relocate to Andorra due to backlash in Argentina, recently returned to his homeland for the Buenos Aires Challenger after nearly five years away. The backlash was a result of his report about being approached by match-fixers in 2015, which subsequently resulted in bans for three Argentine players, Nicolas Kicker, Patricio Heras and Federico Coria.
Upon his return, the 33-year-old pointed out that although there had been some improvements on the Challenger tour regarding match-fixing, the ITF Futures events continued to face daily match-fixing issues. He attributed the ongoing problem to the dire financial straits of the players.
"Completely. The Challenger level improved a little, but it is still far away, the numbers don't show. But Futures are unsustainable. At least one match per day is arranged," he told La Nacion. (Translated from Spanish).
Trungelliti emphasized the importance of Novak Djokovic shedding light on the financial imbalance in tennis, describing the Serb's efforts as "indispensable." He also criticized Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for remaining silent on the matter, suggesting that their inaction made them "complicit" in the flawed system.
"It seems indispensable to me. People may like it or not, but Federer and Nadal never said anything. Whether they like it or not, they are complicit in how bad the system is, because they were not able to open their mouths even once and fight for the rights of the players. If they ever did it it was internally, but it didn't change anything," he said.
Novak Djokovic's PTPA initiative earns Marco Trungelliti's praise, while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal face criticism
Marco Trungelliti also highlighted the insufficient increase in the prize money for the ATP Challenger tour this year. He continued his criticism of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for failing to stand up for lower-ranked players, reiterating that they were culpable in the inadequacy of the system.
"Only this year the Challengers prizes were changed a little, but they are still embarrassing, when we supposedly came out of the most golden era in the history of tennis. You cannot be complicit in the fact that 80-100 people live in tennis. It's what always screwed me up and will continue to screw me up," he said.
The 33-year-old further argued that while Federer and Nadal were exceptional tennis players, they came across as "poor" human beings by not taking steps to improve the system.
In contrast, the Argentine praised Novak Djokovic for his initiative to create the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) alongside Vasek Pospisil, to address such issues.
"As players they can be very good, but as humans trying to improve the system in general, they seem very poor to me. This is what Djokovic and (Vasek) Pospisil are doing today as well," he added.
Trungelliti is an active member of Djokovic's PTPA and he frequently shares his appreciation for the organization's advocacy of players' rights on social media.