Novak Djokovic said on Thursday that he disagreed with some aspects of a class-action lawsuit filed by the Professional Tennis Players’ Association’s (PTPA) against the sport’s governing bodies.
The PTPA filed the suit in a New York court on Tuesday accusing the ATP, WTA, the International Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Integrity Agency of anti-competitive practices.
The 24-times Grand Slam champion, 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 U.S. lawsuit in New York.
“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,” Djokovic told a reporters at the Miami Open.
“This is a classic lawsuit, so lawyers to lawyers, type of situation. So to be quite frank with you, there are things that I agree with in the lawsuit, and then there are also things that I don’t agree with.”
The 37-year-old Serbian added that he found some of the wording in it quite strong: “I think 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 men’s governing body, the ATP, rejected the PTPA’s claims, saying the lobby group was guilty of “division and distraction”, while the women’s WTA called the lawsuit “unfortunate and misguided”.
Djokovic noted that his long-standing efforts to improve player representation and influence go beyond the issue of prize money, and stressed his desire to avoid division in the sport.
“I’ve never been a fan of division in our sport, but I’ve always fought for better representation and influence of and positioning of the players globally in our sport, which I think is still not where I think it should be,” he added.
World number three Carlos Alcaraz 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 U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff and current title holder 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,” American Gauff added.
“I also can’t sit here and complain. I’m a professional athlete. I get paid pretty well to do what I love … There are people who do much harder things in this world.”
(Reuters)
