American Fiona Crawley decided to return her hard-earned $81,500 US Open prize money in order not to jeopardize her eligibility to play collage tennis.
The 21-year-old Crawley plays college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels and is currently the No.1 women’s Division I tennis player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, whose rules restrict athletes from receiving prize money exceeding $10,000 per year.
Crawley received a wildcard into the US Open qualifying tournament and won three matches to make the main draw, where she lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.