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Reilly Opelka has raised concerns over the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allegedly misrepresenting prize money information from tournaments.
The ATP revised the prize money for the 2020 season, which saw player compensation rise to $158.7 million - an increase of 13% from the previous year. The 2023 season also witnessed a hike of $37.5 million in prize money, coming up to $217.9 million.
Reacting to the sudden rise in prize money, Opelka claimed that a lot of the information is manipulated. The American believes that the supposedly increased prize money is just "repurposed."
"A lot of times they like to... you'll see on the information sheet that a lot of those increases are from 2020 to 2021. So, a lot of information is super manipulated," Opelka said on an episode of The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast.
"Let's say, I mean the Miami Open prize money is increased by however percentage this year than 2021," he added. "It's up by a huge number but it's manipulated information a lot of the time, there's increased prize money but there's just no new money, it's just repurposed."
Opelka also claimed that the winner of the 2021 Miami Open received the same prize money as the winner in 1996, expressing doubt about where the presumed prize money increase had gone.
"The winner in Miami Open 2021 made the same amount of money as the winner in 1996. I mean, that's a big concern. I'll take the fault for it whatever, I don't care but they are not coming to point messing with the 1000 players on tour," he said.
"We're the only sport that doesn't have a player's union" - Reilly Opelka
Reilly Opelka further highlighted the importance of a strong union within the sport that can stand against any corruption from the governing body.
Opelka, who wholeheartedly endorsed the creation of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), believes it is "comical" that the rise of a union in tennis went into controversy.
"I think it is the right idea (about the introduction of PTPA). We're the only sport [without a players' union]. What's comical to me is that the PTPA was controversial. We're the only sport that doesn't have a players' union. Look at every other sports, it's like, I think it's controversial that we don't have a union," he said.
Opelka was last seen in action at the 2022 Citi Open, where he fell to Nick Kyrgios in the Round of 16. Since then, a hip injury has kept the American out of action.
