US tennis star John Isner on Wednesday rephrased his earlier
criticism on the issue of reduced prize money for this week’s Miami Open. The player
had slammed the ATP last month for its decision to cut down the prize money for
singles winners from $1.35 million in 2019 to $300,000 in 2021, reported AFP.

Calling the ATP a ‘broken system’ and demanding a ‘true
audit’, the 35-year-old had pointed out that there remained a lack of transparency
regarding decisions taken by ATP.

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The concern, however, seemingly took a 360 degree turn for
Isner on Wednesday, as he proceeded to note that the reduction in prize money was
not his focal point of addressal, explaining that knowing existing tour structures
and exactly what goes into making each decision would be more vital for the
players.

“I think for some of the players, it’s not so much
about the prize money. We don’t really want to make it about that.

Maybe it’s about tour structure that the players would like
to have better knowledge of as to why decisions are made, what went into making
each decision”, Isner was quoted by AFP as saying.

He did, however, state that worries surrounding the economic
factor was something shared by other players as well.

“Again, it’s really not about the money. Of course, we
would prefer to be playing for a bigger purse. There’s just a little bit of
uncertainty about how those numbers came into play, why the prize money is what
it is.

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But there are some players that have questions about why it
was down so much. The tour has implemented a strategy that is keeping the lower
rounds pretty similar”, Isner was further quoted as saying.

The world number 28 said there were several concerned
players who had questions about a substantially larger prize money cutdown in
upper levels of the tournament, such as quarter finals, semi-finals and the
finals.