Mumbai: Taking tennis’ governing our bodies to courtroom was “not our first choice” however one which ultimately “we felt like, and players felt like, was the only choice” to “reform tennis from within”, Ahmad Nassar, govt director of the Novak Djokovic co-founded Skilled Tennis Gamers’ Affiliation (PTPA), informed HT in an interview.
Novak Djokovic on the Miami Open tennis match on Sunday. His gamers physique, PTPA, has taken tennis governing our bodies to courtroom demanding administrative reform. (Getty Photos by way of AFP)
Final Tuesday, the PTPA filed a lawsuit towards the boys’s (ATP) and girls’s (WTA) excursions, together with the ITF and ITIA, over the way in which skilled tennis is run. It shook the tennis world and elicited assorted views from prime gamers.
Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek distanced themselves from it; world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff acknowledged the difficulty of upper income proportion from prize cash for gamers; Djokovic, the physique’s co-founder, mentioned there have been components of the 163-page lawsuit that he agreed with and didn’t, however added that he has “always fought for better representation, influence and positioning of the players globally in our sport, which is still not where it should be”.
Nassar, PTPA’s govt director since 2022, mentioned they “started to see some real themes” across the major points whereas talking to gamers. Schedule, participant compensation, and total participant exploitation had been essentially the most constant.
The tennis calendar, most gamers have concurred, is just too lengthy and hectic. The governing our bodies have reportedly mulled a restructuring of the tour, often called “premium tour”, with streamlined calendar and bigger pay. Nothing official has come out thus far.
“Everybody is kind of stuck. We hope these legal actions will get everyone unstuck and moving in the right direction,” Nassar informed HT.
“The schedule is a complete inefficient grind. You have tournaments 12 months of the year. No other sport does that.”
On compensation, the lawsuit mentions that the excursions “split less than 20% of their revenue with players”. Though the excursions and Grand Slams have incessantly raised the prize cash pot through the years, Forbes’s 2024 record of the world’s highest-paid athletes (on- and off-field earnings) doesn’t function a tennis participant within the prime 50.
“At the higher end, the highest earning tennis player last year made something like what the 150th NBA player made, even though tennis is a global sport. The ratio of sponsorship dollars that these players generate to their earnings on court, it’s nowhere near what a LeBron (James) or a (Lionel) Messi is earning,” Nassar mentioned.
“And then at the lower end, how could a sport that is played by millions of people globally only have a 100 or so players being net positive (in income) every year?”
Djokovic has spoken about tennis having “less than 500 players” total which are in a position to make a residing out of it, and the way most within the 250-500 rankings bracket — most Indian execs are in it — are unable to afford a coach on the tour. “This system, it’s a pyramid, and it has to work for everybody in it,” Nassar mentioned.
He highlighted the anti-doping techniques and completely different balls “week to week and tournament to tournament” amongst different outstanding participant issues.
The lawsuit advocates for a free market, with out the monetary caps and restricted alternatives to play and earn past the excursions. Wouldn’t that, nevertheless, run the chance of getting no checks and balances? Nassar pointed to related lawsuits within the NBA within the Nineteen Seventies and NFL within the 90s.
“In NBA, the issue was the player draft. The NBA had that, and still do. But it’s part of the system that was challenged and changed. In NFL, it was about free agency. Everyone felt it would be anarchy. Not only did it go through, it empowered massive growth in NFL. That’s our hope for tennis,” he mentioned.
Aside from Djokovic, who co-founded the physique with Vasek Pospisil in 2020, PTPA has some well-known present gamers in its govt committee, together with former top-10 Ons Jabuer and Hubert Hurkacz. “This is a player-formed and player-led group. They’re all very involved in everything we do, and supportive,” Nassar mentioned.
The governing our bodies have collectively responded in defence. The ATP mentioned they “strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position”. Because the authorized battle performs out, Nassar hoped for a negotiated settlement as the perfect resolution.
“A settlement that addresses all these problems to the satisfaction of players. And enables tennis to sustainably grow and take its rightful place alongside other global sports, which supports thousands of professional players and generates billions of dollars from incremental revenue.”