Mark Ein, tournament director of the Citi DC Open, says Rafael Nadal accepted a much reduced, but ‘fair’, appearance fee during his rare participation in 2021 – something which was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, after limping out of the French Open and withdrawing from Wimbledon, the Spaniard looked to restart his season at the ATP 500 event in Washington – a tournament which sits in a difficult calendar spot for many players.
Typically, Nadal would usually take an extended break after the grass-court Grand Slam – often not returning until the Canadian or Cincinnati Masters.
“I will tell you, the thing about Rafa, and he is retired, so I think I can say this now – His team actually called and said: ‘He wants to play DC, tell us what is fair, and we will take it. He needs to play’,” disclosed Ein, whilst appearing on the ‘Nothing Major’ podcast.
“It was in the middle of Covid, so at the time we could only have half the stands full. He said just tell us what’s fair. We gave him a number, and they said great.
“Look, it was a good number, but it was definitely not what he would have gotten if the stands were full, so it was a fair place.
“But it was so successful [the event] after he came that I literally called and just said I am going to give you a meaningful amount more just because I want to keep in the spirit of being fair.
“But honestly, I felt like they had trusted us, and when it worked out so well, I wanted to reciprocate, and it was amazing
“I tell you, I heard the stories of what those guys could make, and I totally understand. They could transform an event having someone like that, even for one year.”
Nadal’s debut at the tournament was a true thriller, prevailing over American Jack Sock 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(1) in a three-hour match where – again – the 22-time Grand Slam champion appeared hindered by the foot issue which forced him out of Wimbledon.
To some surprise, the Spaniard still turned up for his second-round match against South African Lloyd Harris – falling 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
“It is indescribable (Nadal’s participation)” Ein said, at the time of the Spaniard’s debut.
“I mean the level of interest in this event in unprecedented in our five decades of this tournament. The whole town is buzzing, our community is buzzing.
“Tickets have been sold out the minute they went on sale. The extra that we could put on sale, went on sale. And we have a waiting list of 15,000 people who want to come.
“I think that’s indicative of the amount of interest there is in seeing this great icon of our game in Washington for the first time.”
Indeed, nearly every practise session of Nadal’s was packed, providing the tournament with some much-needed money after being forced to cancel in 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since Nadal’s participation, the Washington event has become the only joint-500-level tournament on both the ATP and WTA tours.
