Novak Djokovic disagrees with parts of PTPA lawsuit against governing bodies
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Novak Djokovic is not among the 12 current and former players listed as plaintiffs alongside the PTPA in the lawsuit against tennis' governing bodies.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MIAMI – Novak Djokovic said on March 20 that he disagreed with some aspects of a class-action lawsuit filed by the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) against the sport’s governing bodies.
The PTPA filed the suit in a New York court on March 18 accusing the ATP, WTA, the International Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Integrity Agency of anti-competitive practices.
Djokovic, who co-founded the lobby group with Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in 2020, is not among the 12 current and former players listed as plaintiffs alongside the PTPA in the lawsuit.
“In general, I felt I didn’t need to sign the letter because I want other players to step up. I’ve been very active in tennis politics. This is a classic lawsuit, so lawyers to lawyers, type of situation. To be quite frank, there are things that I agree with in the lawsuit, and then there are also things that I don’t agree with,” he said at the Miami Open.
The 37-year-old Serb added that he found some of the wording in it quite strong: “But I guess the legal team knows what they’re doing and what kind of terminology they need to use to get the right effect.”
The action targets the ATP and WTA Tour’s prize-money formula, ranking systems and an “unsustainable” 11-month calendar that disregards player welfare.
The ATP rejected the PTPA’s claims, saying the group was guilty of “division and distraction”, while the WTA called the lawsuit “unfortunate and misguided”.
World No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz also distanced himself from the lawsuit, saying he was surprised to learn of it, but Australian Nick Kyrgios called it a “special moment” for the players’ voices to be heard.
Former US Open champion Coco Gauff and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said they had not looked into the lawsuit in detail but wanted to see players getting a bigger share of revenue from tournaments in future.
“But there’s a whole other thing, just the visibility and things that we can also improve on,” Gauff added, without going into specifics.
Meanwhile, the two women’s tennis stars eased through their second-round matches at the Miami Open but seventh seed Elena Rybakina crashed out to American Ashlyn Krueger. Sabalenka beat Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-3, 6-0 in a contest which lasted just 58 minutes, while Gauff made even shorter work of her match, beating 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-0, 6-0 in just 47 minutes.
Krueger, the 20-year-old Texan, claimed her first win over a top-10 opponent by beating 2023 Miami Open finalist Rybakina 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in 1hr 50min. REUTERS, AFP