Marina Erakovic of New Zealand denied reports that she asked for an appearance fee for the ASB Classic in Auckland, the only WTA event in her home nation.
According to reports from The New Zealand Herald, tournament director Karl Budge has already informed the 47th-ranked player that they couldn’t give her an appearance fee but will work on some form of compensation for commiting to her home event. It’s assumed that the tournament has invested a significant amount of funding for the appearances of former world number ones Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic.
“I never asked for money, that’s not correct,” Erakovic was quoted as saying. “The reason I think this has come about was because I suggested some players have been paid to play in the past and I wasn’t. I’m not asking for money but I don’t want to be taken for granted either. I love to play at home in front of family, friends and supporters. I do it for the right reasons but compare that with Canada, for example. If you were a Top 50 player in their events, you would probably be paid to play.”
“My impression was they were looking for an appearance fee because Marina can go and get four times the prize money at the Brisbane International. To be fair to Marina, it’s not all about the money. There are valuable ranking points at stake too, which, if she went well, means she could be a protected seed in Melbourne [at the Australian Open],” Budge said.
Brisbane International, which also takes place the same week for the Auckland event, has a $1 million prize money purse compared to $250,000 for the Auckland event. Brisbane has a WTA Premier status while Auckland has the lower-tier International-level status.
“We have a limited budget so we’ve got to be strategic in how we spend our money,” Budge stressed.
“Marina had a strong case. She’s won New Zealand’s first WTA title since 1989 [at Memphis] and had two third-round appearances at Grand Slam events [Wimbledon and Roland Garros]. If I was her agent, I’d be requesting an appearance fee, too.”
