Fiona Crawley remains motivated after her run at the US Open, despite giving up more than $80,000 in prize money to stay eligible for the NCAAs.
Making the US Open main draw allowed Crawley to collect $81,000 in prize money, according to The News & Observerwhich the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill athlete will not collect.
“I would never take the money and I would never risk my eligibility, but I’ve worked hard this week and it seems unreal that there are football and basketball players making millions for NOTHING and I can’t take the money I’ve worked so hard for,” she said. is, according to the output.
Unique rules you didn’t know US Open players and spectators had to follow
According to the NCAA’s amateur rules, tennis players can collect prize money only “if it does not exceed $10,000 per calendar year and if it comes from an event sponsor.”
“After the $10,000 limit is reached, the additional prize money may not exceed the actual and necessary expenses for each subsequent event in the calendar year,” the rules explain.
Crawley, 21, lost in the first round to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Tuesday night, 6-2, 6-4, after winning three qualifying matches last week.
“I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long … since I was 5 years old and old enough to know what the US Open was,” she said in an interview posted on the tennis tournament’s website before her main draw debut.
“After the match, when I finished, I was definitely in shock. I had a day and a night to process it and I’m still definitely in shock,” she said. “I feel like I won’t really digest it until I’m ready to serve or return the first point of my first [main-draw] match.”
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Crawley was a rising star at the collegiate level, earning multiple awards, including being named the 2023 ITA National Player of the Year and receiving the 2023 ACC Player of the Year Award.
According to her biography on the university’s website, Crawley learned to play tennis in Japan between the ages of 6 and 9.
Fiona Crawley at the US Open.
Pete Staples/USTA via AP
On Thursday, she and teammate Carson Tanguilig lost in women’s doubles, losing to Irina Khromacheva and Daria Savilla 2-6, 2-6.
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Source: HIS Education