ATP players handed record $18.3 million profit-sharing bonus
The bonus amount, a 177% increase on the previous season's payout, will be distributed to players based on performance at the nine ATP 1000 tournaments, which rank just below the four Grand Slams in prestige.
"This is exactly what profit sharing was designed to do: ensure that players and tournaments share equally in the sport's financial upside," ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said.
"The $18.3 million is a huge milestone. For us, it's proof that strengthening the premium product and aligning interests creates value.
"We're proud to be strengthening our partnership and building a stronger, more sustainable ATP Tour."
The profit-sharing plan, introduced in 2022, splits profits generated at ATP Masters 1000 events – above onsite base prize money – equally between players and tournaments and is a cornerstone of the tour's OneVision strategic plan.
Profit-sharing helped push ATP player compensation to a record $261 million for the 2024 season for a total of $378 million when combined with Grand Slam prize money.
The men's elite body added that it was on track to deliver more compensation records, including $28.5 million in Challenger Tour prize money and a $3 million ATP 500 bonus pool.
The expansion of most of the Masters events to 96-player draws had increased earning opportunities for players, widening the number of those able to make a sustainable living from the sport, the ATP added.
It said there was a "wave of infrastructure investment" as Madrid, Rome, Cincinnati, Shanghai and Paris, among other venues, had upgraded facilities to enhance the experience for players and spectators.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘A structural dependence on heavy industry': can South Korea wean itself off fossil fuels?
GDP per capita per annum: US$34,640 (global average $14,210) Total annual tonnes CO2: 577.42.m (tenth highest country) CO2 per capita: 11.16 metric tonnes (global average 4.7) Most recent NDC (carbon plan): 2021 Climate plans: highly insufficient On a cool early morning on South Korea's east coast, Eunbin Kang pointed to a monument to a vanishing era. The 2.1GW Samcheok Blue power plant which came online in South Korea in January looms out of the headlands above a beach made internationally famous by a K-pop album shoot. It is expected to emit 13m tonnes of CO2 annually, while its lifespan could stretch beyond 2050, the year by which the country has pledged to reach carbon neutrality. The country was building coal-fired power plants, said Kang, an activist who heads the Youth Climate Emergency Action group and relocated to this city to oppose the facility, 'even as the climate emergency demands an immediate halt to fossil fuel expansion'. But Samcheok is not an outlier. It is a symbol of the stark climate contradiction at the heart of the world's 12th largest economy, celebrated for its technological prowess in semiconductors and electric vehicle batteries, yet among the top ten worst global climate performers. Despite South Korea's impressive climate pledges to reach net zero by 2050 with a 40% reduction in emissions from 2018 levels by 2030, fossil fuels still dominate its energy mix: 60% of electricity comes from coal and gas, while renewables make up just 9%, a quarter of the OECD average of 34%. Monopoly strangling transition At the heart of South Korea's climate failure is an energy model based on a state monopoly and central planning. Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), the state-owned energy company, controls transmission, distribution and retail, while its subsidiaries dominate generation, creating structural challenges for competitors. These include Korea South-East Power, Korea Western Power and four other generation subsidiaries that together operate the vast majority of the country's coal, gas and nuclear power plants. Meanwhile, renewable energy developers face an obstacle course of regulatory barriers. Until recently, windfarm developers had to obtain 28 different permits from multiple ministries in a bureaucratic maze which created years of delays and significantly increased project costs, making many otherwise viable developments financially unfeasible. Progress was made in early 2025 with the passage of a long-awaited bill aimed at streamlining approvals, although the law won't take effect until 2026. Grid connection remains another hurdle. While electricity demand has grown by 98% over the past two decades, the transmission network has expanded by just 26%, but attempts to expand the grid have led to bitter local conflicts. In Miryang, South Gyeongsang province, the government tried to compel residents to sell up to clear space for transmission towers and people faced violent crackdowns during a six-year standoff. Currently, a dozen such projects are stalled in the country. In February 2025, the National Assembly passed a Power Grid Special Act aimed at expanding transmission. But civic groups warn the law reinforces the country's decades-old top-down model of infrastructure development, removing what few safeguards remained around public consultation and environmental review. 'We fully acknowledge that renewable energy transition requires transmission lines,' says Kim Jeong-jin from Friends of the Earth in Dangjin, where one project faced more than 10 years of delays due to local opposition. 'But the repeated conflicts arise because the electricity is not even for local use, yet it causes damage to our region without any regard for our voices.' The country's energy strategy is guided by the Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, a 15-year forecast revised every two years. But the framework, which dates back to the 1960s, still prioritises centralised, large-scale power generation – a model built for coal and nuclear, and fundamentally incompatible with today's decentralised, flexible renewable technologies. Political volatility worsens the problem. Each five-year presidential term brings a policy reversal. For instance, in 2017, President Moon Jae-in announced a nuclear phase-out; his successor, the now disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, reversed course five years later. This whiplash undermines any long-term planning for renewables – a problem faced by democracies around the world. The consequences are stark. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent fossil fuel prices soaring, Kepco incurred enormous losses. In 2022 alone, South Korea faced an extra 22tn won (£11.9 bn) in LNG power costs. Yet the government kept electricity prices artificially low, a political choice that pushed Kepco's debt to a staggering 205tn won (£111bn) by 2024. Despite this crisis, meaningful reform remains elusive. This entrenched monopoly system has effectively blocked the clean energy transition, with independent renewable producers struggling to gain meaningful access to a market dominated by fossil fuel interests. Carbon-intensive by design More broadly, South Korea's postwar rise relied on energy-intensive industries: steel, petrochemicals, shipbuilding and semiconductors. 'This structural dependency on heavy and chemical industries makes the energy transition extraordinarily difficult,' says Park Sangin, a professor of economics at Seoul National University. 'These industries are deeply embedded in the country's economic fabric and require vast amounts of stable, cheap electricity.' Powerful chaebols, or family-controlled conglomerates like Posco, Samsung and Hyundai, exert outsized influence on national policy. Their operations are supported by an electricity market designed for industrial stability, not climate mitigation. And the problem isn't just domestic; South Korea also finances and provides the infrastructure for fossil fuels globally. South Korean shipbuilders dominate the global market for LNG carriers. Public financial institutions also bankroll overseas fossil fuel projects. One that was recently approved, the Coral Norte gas project in Mozambique, is projected to emit 489m tonnes of CO2 across its lifecycle. At the same time, South Korea has emerged as one of the world's top importers of Russian fossil fuels, even as other nations cut ties. 'This financing directly contradicts [South] Korea's climate targets and makes a mockery of the Paris Agreement,' says Dongjae Oh, the head of the gas team at Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC). 'It exposes the country's hypocrisy – adopting climate targets at home while funding climate destruction abroad.' Even climate-friendly institutions continue backing fossil fuels. The National Pension Service (NPS), one of the world's largest pension funds, remains a major investor in coal and gas projects, despite a 2021 'coal-free' declaration. Three and a half years after this announcement, NPS only finalised its coal divestment strategy in December 2024, with a timeline that will delay implementation for domestic assets until 2030. Meanwhile, South Korea's market-based climate policies have failed to drive meaningful change. The emissions trading scheme (K-ETS) was supposed to put a price on carbon when it launched in 2015. But the system, which hands out free allowances to the largest companies, has instead created perverse incentives, according to campaign group Plan 1.5. The group carried out an analysis and found that South Korea's 10 largest polluters have made over 475bn won (£258bn) from selling unused carbon credits between 2015 and 2022. The system that was meant to make polluters pay has instead rewarded them. Next generation fights back There is growing awareness of a climate crisis as the country begins to experience increasingly severe weather. In 2023 46 people died in floods that displaced thousands. More recently, torrential rains have again caused at least 26 deaths, followed by a record-breaking heatwave. In March this year devastating wildfires swept across more than 48,000 hectares (118,610 acres) – roughly 80% of the area of Seoul – killing 31 people and destroying thousands of homes. The country's disaster chief described the situation as 'a climate crisis unlike anything we've experienced before'. The prime minister, Kim Min-seok, has described the climate crisis as 'the new normal'. Now a new generation of South Koreans is challenging the status quo through legal action. In February, a group of children gathered outside Posco's office in Seoul. Among them was 11-year-old Yoohyun Kim, the youngest plaintiff in a groundbreaking lawsuit against Posco. The case aims to block the company's plan to reline an old coal-fired blast furnace, a move that would extend its life by 15 years and emit an estimated 137m tonnes of CO2. 'I came here during my precious winter break, my last as an elementary school student, because I want to protect all four seasons,' Yoohyun told supporters. 'Spring and autumn are disappearing with climate change – and with them, the chance for children like me to play freely outside.' The lawsuit is the first of its kind globally to target traditional blast furnace production. It follows a crucial ruling by South Korea's constitutional court last August which found that the government's climate policies violated the rights of future generations by failing to set legally binding targets for 2031-50. In March, residents and activists filed another suit over the government's approval of the world's largest semiconductor cluster in Yongin, backed by a 360tn won (£195bn) Samsung investment. The suit argues that the project's 10GW electricity demand and new LNG plants contradict climate regulations and corporate sustainability commitments. Kim Jeongduk, an activist from Political Mamas who participated in protests against the Samcheok Blue plant with her child, sees this as a generational struggle. 'Growing up in Pohang, I saw smokestacks fill the sky on my way to school every day. My throat would hurt from fine dust, and iron particles would collect on our windowsills,' she recalls. 'Adults always said: 'Thanks to Posco, our region survives.' I don't want my child to grow up with that same false choice between a healthy environment and economic survival.' The international data shows that South Korea's emissions peaked in 2018, and have been falling, with a brief jump after Covid, ever since. The government maintains that it is making progress on its climate goals, although critics argue that it is relying on some wonky calculations around its 2030 emission reduction target, confusing net with gross emissions. 'South Korea is actively pursuing bold reduction of coal power generation through prohibiting new permits for coal power plants and phasing out ageing facilities,' the ministry said in a statement, arguing that any remaining coal plants operating beyond 2050, such as those approved before the 2021 ban, would be addressed through 'carbon capture and storage technology and clean fuel conversion' in a way 'not inconsistent with our carbon neutrality commitment'. But independent analysis suggests these measures fall well short. 'The Basic Plan has no specific plan for how to expand renewable energy,' says Prof Park. 'There are vague targets, but no timeline, no locations. In stark contrast, the nuclear roadmap is extremely detailed and specific.' His recent research using the Global Change Assessment Model shows the current plan would fall short of meeting South Korea's 2030 emissions targets by approximately 6-7%. A more ambitious policy focused on offshore wind expansion and a complete phase-out of coal by 2035 could not only meet climate goals but reduce power sector emissions by 82% by 2035. When confronted with criticisms of its emissions accounting, South Korea's environment ministry defended its approach: 'Our emissions reduction target calculation method considers international regulations and major country cases. Countries like Japan and Canada use similar calculation methods for their 2030 NDCs,' a spokesperson said. The ministry added that although previous targets used the older 1996 IPCC guidelines, from 2024 they have begun using the updated 2006 standards for national greenhouse gas statistics. Back in Samcheok, Eunbin Kang looks out at the coal plant that now dominates the coastal landscape. 'I dream of a society where exploitation and plunder are replaced by decentralisation and autonomy,' she says. 'I want to contribute to spreading lifestyles and policies that allow everyone to lead a good life without requiring a lot of electricity or money.'
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
‘Has to go tonight' – West Ham fans demand Graham Potter SACKED after dismal opening day defeat to Sunderland
Potter now has an unwanted record at West Ham GONE TO POTT 'Has to go tonight' – West Ham fans demand Graham Potter SACKED after dismal opening day defeat to Sunderland Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) GRAHAM POTTER may have already lost the support of many West Ham fans after the Hammers' dismal opening day defeat to Sunderland. Potter's team were beaten 3-0 by the newly promoted Black Cats, who had a dream return to the top flight. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 West Ham fans have called for Graham Potter to be sacked Credit: Reuters 5 West Ham fell to an embarrassing opening day defeat Credit: Reuters 5 Newly promoted side Sunderland beat the Hammers 3-0 Credit: Getty Second half goals from Eliezer Mayenda, Daniel Ballard and Wilson Isidor sent the Stadium of Light into bedlam and the underdogs top of the table. But for West Ham, it was a frustrating reminder that they are miles away from where they would like to be under Potter. That frustration spilled out onto social media as plenty of Hammers fans vented their anger online. One wrote: "Potter has to go tonight, that's a dreadful start". READ MORE IN FOOTBALL BALLS UP Spurs first team to benefit from new Premier League rule as Dubravka penalised While another added: "Can't see Graham Potter making it to mid-season." A third fumed: "Sack Graham Potter today. He has no idea how to fix the same issues West Ham have had for the past couple of seasons. Embarrassment to lose this". And a fourth posted: "This man is not a Premier League quality manager. He should stand down." One other fan even claimed: "Potter will be fired before December". 5 BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS Since Potter was appointed as West Ham manager he has taken charge of 19 Premier League games, winning just five of them. Two of those five wins have come against relegated opposition in Ipswich and Leicester. Moment Graham Potter 'loses entire West Ham fanbase in 20 seconds' with shocking Tottenham comments_1 Potter's win percentage is just 25 per cent across all competitions - the lowest of any West Ham manager in history with a minimum of 20 games in charge as per Transfermarkt. Things don't get any easier for Potter this season either, with clashes against Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham on the horizon. Potter speaks out Speaking after the game the manager said: "I was happy with our performance in the first half. I think we did a lot of things well. "We were unlucky not to score. We quietened the crowd and felt in control of large parts of the game." Adding: "The second half wasn't good enough. We need to get better, we need to improve, we need to understand what happened." In his press conference he was more damning: 'I'd rather focus on what we need to do today. If we don't do the basics right in football, you can bring player and player and player and player in and it's not going to solve the problems. 'The problems are we didn't defend well enough at some actions and then we paid a heavy, heavy price, which you can do in this league. So that's what we have to focus on.' Potter was tearing his hair out as Mayenda and Ballard were both allowed to head home before Isidor sealed it at the death on the counter. He added: 'With the greatest respect, it's not Niall Quinn playing. We're disappointed with that. 'We have to deal with those situations. It's not like we were cut open and pushed back for periods of time. It wasn't like that. It was just balls in the box that we didn't do well enough. 'The lads are angry, they're disappointed, they're frustrated.'
Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Brighton 1 Fulham 1: Rodrigo Muniz scores last-gasp leveller… but jumps into stands to celebrate with WRONG fans
Scroll down to see the stats from the game HOT ROD Brighton 1 Fulham 1: Rodrigo Muniz scores last-gasp leveller… but jumps into stands to celebrate with WRONG fans Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) RODRIGO MUNIZ clawed one back SIX-MINUTES into injury time to send Marco Silva and co bananas - but accidentally celebrated in front of the wrong fans. The Fulham boss had been in a right huff as Brighton looked as though they had got the better of them with Matt O'Riley's ice-cool 59th minute penalty. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 9 Fulham celebrated a late equaliser through Rodrigo Muniz Credit: Reuters 9 Matt O'Riley scored the game's opening goal from the penalty spot Credit: PA But late drama saw Fulham win a corner and Muniz lash in Harry Wilson's delivery from close range. It sparked mayhem in the Cottagers dugout as Marco Silva celebrated wildly in front of the fourth official who he had been butting heads with all game. While Muniz himself had accidentally jumped into the Brighton end to celebrate in the madness, quickly realising his mistake when he was met with abuse instead of jubilation. This was the battle of the Premier League's most likely managers to be on the cover of GQ Magazine with stylish Silva up against whipper snapper Fabian Hurzeler. READ MORE IN FOOTBALL BALLS UP Spurs first team to benefit from new Premier League rule as Dubravka penalised For the fans they both share the dream of dusting off their passports for another European tour, with both sides just missing out last term and this game showing it could once again be closer than ever. Brighton had the most recent taste of European football after reaching the last 16 of the Europa League under Roberto De Zerbi in the 2022-23 season, while Fulham's last run came all the way back in 2011. On three minutes, Brighton's Yankuba Minteh had lashed the ball in the back of the net, but it was disallowed as the ball had actually gone out of play before Carlos Baleba's cut back. A quick VAR check was all that was needed to confirm a no goal. 9 9 O'Riley confidently slotted home from 12 yards Credit: Getty 9 Sander Berge's outstretched leg brought down Geroginio Rutter in the area Credit: Reuters 9 Marco Silva had cut a frustrated figure for most of the game Credit: Reuters BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS It took five minutes for fiery Portuguese boss Marco Silva to lose his rag as Minteh caught Fulham youngster Josh King, 18, with some studs but not even a free-kick was given. King stayed down for a few seconds before coming back to life and shortly after nearly won a penalty up the other end. Peter Crouch walks out of TNT Sports' Aston Villa vs Newcastle coverage to catch urgent flight Fulham were shouting for a penalty as King cut inside Jan Paul van Hecke and Bart Verbruggen before going down in the six-yard box, the referee waved it away and VAR concurred. The excitement fizzled out, though, with chances few and far in between other than a tame header from Mats Wieffer off Maxim de Cuyper's free-kick being steered straight to the palms of Bernd Leno. It didn't take long for drama to erupt in the second-half as referee Sam Barrott didn't hesitate as he pointed to the spot to award Brighton a penalty. Georginio Rutter had raced into the box before he was brought down amid a tangle of legs with Sander Berge. Fans were left sweating over who would take Brighton's penalties after they sold spot-kick Joao Pedro to Chelsea in the summer. A whopping 15 of the Brazilian striker's 30 goals for Brighton came from the spot but boss Hurzler insisted he had a plan of action for penalty kicks. And Hounslow-born O'Riley picked up where Pedro left off, slamming a no-nonsense penalty into the bottom corner. Things were still cagey though and Kaoru Mitoma was booked for catching Harry Wilson's ankle after initially winning the ball with his sliding tackle. Leno was nearly the culprit of a clanger when he scrambled with a low drive from Diego Gomez but was very lucky when he caught it again before it spilled over the line. There was a late flurry of chances for the hosts before the Muniz drama at the death. Muniz, who has been linked with an exit this summer, arrived just at the right time to prod home Wilson's cross. It was the late drama that a relatively unglamorous opening weekend fixture needed, and certainly a moment that frustrated boss Silva was calling out for. 9 Rodrigo Muniz netted a late equaliser Credit: Getty 9 The striker initially celebrated in front of the Brighton fans Credit: Getty
