"It came across as a bit harsh": Thiem on his relief fund comments

Dominic Thiem has further explained his comments on contributing to a player relief fund, saying they sounded more "harsh" than he had intended.

A player initiative, led by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, is asking Top 100 pros to contribute on a sliding scale, based on their ranking, to help players ranked between 250 and 700 during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thiem, who initially told Krone that many ITF-level pros are "unprofessional" and he did not want to "give them my money," gave another interview to ORF, saying he was not opposed to helping players, but wanted to select who received his donations.

"It came across as a bit harsh," Thiem said of his original comments. "There are a few things that bother me. There are 2,000 players in the rankings, the ones further down are definitely there.

"There are some players I would not like to support. So I'd prefer the player got to choose and then it would benefit the ones who really need it."

The Austrian also repeated that he prefers to donate to other causes.

"There are going to be others who need it more than probably every single athlete," he said.

Getty Images

Fellow pros Stan Wawrinka and Alexander Zverev have backed funding for lower-ranked players. Zverev said the Top 50 had been speaking about helping lower-ranked players via messaging services, and were discussing the issue.

"We talk and contributed ideas," said Zverev, speaking to Kicker.

Wawrinka, speaking to L'Equipe), said keeping the playing field intact was important.

"If tennis exists, it's because of all the players, not just those who are at the top," he said. "But it's shown a lack of harmony in professional tennis—the Grand Slams provide huge amounts to their federation. This creates a big imbalance between these four [tournaments] and the others."

In addition to any player contributions, the ATP and WTA Tours, the ITF and the Grand Slam will provide $6 million for a player relief fund. Further announcements will contain more about which players will receive funding.