Kafelnikov, a multimillionaire who uses his own jet to travel to tournaments, raised eyebrows at the Australian Open on Thursday when he said tennis fared poorly in comparison with some other professional sports. We play a sport and we get paid very well. Jeff Tarango, No. 92 in the world, shares Kafelnikov's view. In an article in an Australian newspaper earlier this week, he said grassroots tennis would benefit if early losers got bigger payoffs. He also said the big sports leagues in North America earmark a much higher percentage of gross revenues to players compared to the tennis world.
Tennis officials say they spend a lot of money on facilities and developing young talent.
Sampras has cut back on the number of tournaments he enters over the past five years to concentrate on the four Grand Slams. Players often earn many times more than their prize money in endorsements and sponsorship contracts, with the amount of money in the game allowing the best players to live privileged lives. Agassi suggested Kafelnikov's comments were disrespectful to the game's fans and said he had told the Russian not to speak on his behalf. The fans deserve a lot of respect. Kafelnikov had said tennis players fared poorly in comparison with professional golfers.