Earlier this week, tennis player Karue sell reached a special milestone in his career, however, the celebration will be limited because the amount of bonuses allocated to low-level tournaments is not much.
The Brazilian tennis player even asked Novak Djokovic for help because he thought that being an employee at McDonald's would earn more money than players in his position.
The tennis player turned 31 in November and made his first appearance in the Top 300 of ATP's men's tennis players on Monday. He took that position after reaching the Las Vegas Challenger semi-finals last week.
But before playing well at Sin City, the 30-year-old spent much of this season playing at the ITF level, where he won two trophies and won several other awards.
But playing well continuously in those tournaments does not help sell a lot of money because he has only earned 25,000 USD in prize money this year.
Overall, he has earned just $61,000 from playing tennis throughout his career.
His other source of income comes from vlogging about his tennis career on YouTube and earning money from it.
"Today I crossed the 300 mark for the first time. But I would earn more money if I worked at McDonald's (laughing icon). I'm fine with my online work, but I feel sorry for my colleagues. His level is now as high as 400 (at least), having to play as a challenger. Tennis has passed the usual Top 100," sell out wrote on X.
A few years ago, when Djokovic debuted for the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), he affirmed that he believed that players needed a strong federation and someone who would fight for them to ensure better rights and conditions throughout the Tour.
At the time, the Serbian tennis player stressed that one of the things the organization would focus on was ensuring that lower-ranked tennis players had better conditions and a better chance to make a living when competing at Challenger and ITF levels.
When expressing his views, sell - ranked 299th in the world, had ganpped a PTPA the and asked for help.
"It's not saying players need to earn millions of dollars, but they are being exploited on a large scale. Top 50 should be earned more, 100, 150,00. We would love to see some real change here @ptpaplayers. Without a federation, players have no voice. Just shut up and play, sell.
Starting with the fact that players are now competing for fewer points in challenger events, while the ATP has more points. This is done without any notice to the players.
Shortly after the 30-year-old made some harsh comments about the conditions of lower-ranked ATP events, the matter began to attract attention and feedback from everyone. And with that, he felt the need to say something - he loves tennis but doesn't want his children to play the sport if some things are still the same.
We are the third or fourth most watched sport in the world. About 1.3 billion people watch, but we can't have just over 400 people living off this sport, both men and women.
I think we have to keep that in mind and really think about whether the sport is doing well or not. Of course, the top players are doing well and are not complaining. But I'm speaking on behalf of all the lower-ranked players who are struggling to make a living. I think this is the main goal to help them, Djokovic said in March 2023.
