Novak Djokovic said on Saturday that he, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are organising aid for players struggling with the paralysis of the game due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I spoke to Roger and Rafa a few days ago,” Djokovic, the world number one, said in an Instagram chat with friend and rival Stan Wawrinka on Saturday.
“We had a long conversation about the near future of tennis, what is going to happen, how we can contribute and how we can help especially lower-ranked players, who are obviously struggling the most.”
“The majority of the players who are ranked between 200, 250 in the world, and the 700th or 1,000th do not have federation support, do not have sponsors. They are completely independent and left alone,” he said. 
“Guys who are ranked between 200-250, especially to 700...are thinking of leaving tennis right now.”
He said players, the ATP and the four Grand Slams “would all get together and will contribute to a player relief fund that ATP will distribute.”
“It looks, hopefully, that there will something between $3 million (2.75 million euros) and $4.5 million that is going to be distributed,” he estimated. Djokovic said the cash could come from the prize money for the season-ending World Tour Finals or the final bonus pools for top players.
“Maybe if we don’t have any tournaments this season, we can take a certain percentage from our prize money from Australian Open in January,” he said.
“These guys are the grass roots of tennis. The future of tennis. We need to show them they still can rely on support of the top guys.” 
According to reports in tennis media, Djokovic, as president of the ATP Players’ Council, which also includes Federer and Nadal, proposed to members that players in the top 100 for singles and the top 20 in doubles contribute according to their rankings. 
The proposed scale runs from $30,000 for a top-five player to $5,000 for those between 51 and 100. That would raise approximately $1 million and the ATP would make a similar contribution. On Friday, ATP chief Andrea Gaudenzi echoed the call for unity on the tour website. 
“Our guys are at home, obviously unable to play, unable to earn money and financially struggling, so we will try to help,” he said, adding that the ATP faced the problem of not knowing how long the crisis would last and how much revenue it would lose. “I’ve been quite touched by the top players who reached out, the big names expressing their desire of helping the lower-ranked players and putting those players first. 
“We are also talking with the Grand Slams about it. They may want to join in the effort. I think it would be a great message for the sport.”
World tennis has been at a standstill since the beginning of March and will not resume until mid-July at the earliest following the postponement of Roland Garros and the cancellation of Wimbledon.


Millman questions ‘big three’ plan to help tennis professionals

The planned initiative from tennis ‘big three’ Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to support lower ranked professionals during the coronavirus crisis has been questioned by Australian player John Millman yesterday.
“If the concern is to help players ranked 250-700 in the world why has it taken a global pandemic to realize this? Surely over the many years of top end heavy prize money increases we maybe should have
maybe distributed the spread a little more...” Millman, ranked 43 in the world, wrote on Twitter.
However, the four grand slams have recently increased the amounts paid to those losing in the first round. Djokovic, who is also president of the ATP player council, was quoted by French paper L’Equipe, in a letter calling for the top 100 to make donations on a sliding scale. While he and the rest of the top five would donate 30,000 dollars, Millman would be asked to donate 10,000 dollars.
Other contributions would come the grand slams and ATP Finals with the aim of giving the players ranked 250-700 10,000 dollars each, which would require 4.5 million dollars overall.
Djokovic warned that many lower ranked players may have to leave tennis if they cannot make it work financially.