Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas poses with the trophy after winning the ATP Open 13 Provence tennis tournament in Marseille recently. (Getty Images)
Many lower-ranked tennis stars are struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic
Patrick Mouratoglou, the mentor of Stefanos Tsitsipas and coach of Serena Williams teamed up with the Greek star to launch the ‘Beyond 100’ auction.
The plan came to fruition after Tsitsipas wanted to help lower-ranked players from the WTA and ATP.
While the top-ranked ones won’t be facing major issues due tot he coronavirus, the ones in the lower ranks are struggling financially.
This is where Mouratoglou wrote a letter over how he could help the struggling players. Tsitsipas and Mouratoglou joined forced to come up with the Beyond 100 campaign, and suffice to say, it is a great step during such tough times.
The website allows users to bid for tennis memorabilia and the funds raised will support players from both the WTA and ATP.
Tsitsipas is one of the next-gen stars, however, he knows how important it is for tennis players to survive these tough times:
“I understand how critical it is for the sustainability of both ATP and WTA players ranked beyond the top 100 and how difficult it is to make a living from professional tennis, especially with no tennis events going on for an undefined period of time.”
The Greek finished by saying that the Beyond 100 Support could start a movement for others to follow.
This is a great move from Tsitsipas and it could be copied in other sports too. Many top stars donate a lot of their earnings to charities etc, but the lower-ranked players often don’t make enough.
It is even more testing during these troubling times, and hopefully, a lot of people help out in this brilliant initiative.
Tsitsipas had a great start to 2020 by reaching the Australian Open semi-finals. However, he was unable to land his first Grand Slam title with Novak Djokovic winning the final against Dominic Thiem.
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