By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Friday, March 21, 2025
Picture credit score: Matthew Calvis
When Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic surveys the tennis panorama, he is struck by unsettling imaginative and prescient.
Former world No. 1 Djokovic sees the game creeping towards a tennis feudal system with governing our bodies and a few tournaments thriving, whereas gamers are getting priced out of the competitors.
Assembly the media in Miami earlier than his opening-round match vs. Rinky Hijikata, Djokovic was requested to evaluate the PTPA’s lawsuit towards the ATP, WTA and ITF.
Olympic gold-medal champion Djokovic stated the first problem is gamers, notably lower-ranked gamers, are usually not receiving an sufficient piece of the income pie. Consequently, some lower-ranked gamers are compelled out of the game just because they can not afford the price of world journey and training.
“At the moment, there are usually not sufficient gamers [making a] residing from this sport on the very best stage, we’re incomes good cash,” Djokovic informed the media in Miami. “However the cause why I have been speaking for years concerning the equal break up of the pie, or enhance of the prize cash, is due to the grassroot ranges.
“And the women and men, skilled tennis gamers which might be preventing to mainly proceed taking part in the game. I do know, personally, very large variety of gamers which have left tennis, notably throughout COVID time due to lack of funds. And so, I feel I do not know precisely these days, the variety of gamers which might be capable of make a residing from this sport?”
Djokovic estimates about 400 gamers making a residing on the professional Excursions and given the actual fact tennis is likely one of the most widely-viewed sports activities and generates tons of of hundreds of thousands in playing {dollars}, that quantity is unacceptable to him.
“I feel it is most likely – singles, doubles, males, ladies mixed – most likely round 400 [players who make a living from tennis],” Djokovic stated. “Which isn’t sufficient for a really world sport that we’ve. I need to see that quantity broaden. I have been saying this quite a bit within the media within the final a number of years.
“However primarily based on some research and analysis that was completed concerning the recognition of the sports activities tennis is definitely the third or fourth hottest sport on the planet. I feel we’re sharing the third spot with cricket. Primary is clearly soccer, or soccer, as you name it, [then] basketball, and it was adopted by greater than virtually 2 billion individuals. And tennis and cricket is 1.3 billion individuals, however when it comes to maximizing its potential, and industrial worth, we’re quantity 9, or ten. So, so there’s big [potential].”
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀.At the moment, the PTPA and over a dozen gamers, on behalf of the complete skilled inhabitants, filed a sweeping collection of authorized actions towards the ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA to reform skilled tennis. https://t.co/1r4LWQpopP
— Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation (@ptpaplayers) March 18, 2025
Based in 2019, the PTPA has advocated for skilled tennis gamers to have extra say and management over their careers, together with sponsorship and off-court incomes alternatives that they really feel are overly restricted by their participation in ATP and WTA occasions.
So given the large viewers and income numbers at stake, why have not gamers and the sport’s governing our bodies labored out a mutual settlement? Why did the PTPA file the blockbuster lawsuit towards the ATP, WTA and ITF with out one remaining effort to achieve an accord?
Djokovic stated the reason being easy: he views the present ATP political construction as a “monopoly”
“Widespread Floor and a standard course that may be satisfying or win-win for everybody,” Djokovic stated. “Drawback is that there’s a monopoly in place as nicely that has been there for many years, and it is laborious to interrupt it, and gamers are sometimes occasions getting a shorter finish of the stick.
“And I feel it is proper for any participant, actually, to talk up on this problem. So I feel I am in the direction of the top of my profession, and lots of the individuals have at all times been counting on me to say one thing about this matter, as I am doing proper now, and I do not thoughts speaking about it.
“However I want to see the present leaders of the respective excursions and and the longer term generations which might be going to guide this sport for the following many years, to take a lead, and to grasp that these points, these matters, these topics, are vital for them and for the gamers, and never only for them, but in addition for the opposite gamers that they’re representing.”
In an announcement issued on Tuesday, the ATP blasted the PTPA claims of corruption as “totally with out advantage” and additional knocked the PTPA for making an attempt to draw consideration to its trigger by means of “division and distraction.”
“Whereas ATP has remained centered on delivering reforms that profit gamers at a number of ranges, the PTPA has persistently chosen division and distraction by means of misinformation over progress,” the ATP stated in an announcement. “5 years on from its inception in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to determine a significant function in tennis, making its determination to pursue authorized motion at this juncture unsurprising.
“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, consider the case to be totally with out advantage, and can vigorously defend our place. ATP stays dedicated to working in the most effective pursuits of the sport – in the direction of continued development, monetary stability, and the very best future for our gamers, tournaments, and followers.”
Djokovic, a former ATP Participant Council President, and Vasek Pospisil based The Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation with the goal of giving professional gamers whole illustration within the recreation’s decision-making course of.
In current interviews, Djokovic has reiterated his long-held declare that the ATP Board of Administrators construction is damaged and doesn’t adequately symbolize participant curiosity.
“We have now an issue within the very—how can I say—construction of the ATP is that as gamers we solely have the 50% of that group,” Djokovic stated. “There’s lots of occasions there was battle of curiosity between tournaments and gamers. We needed totally different factor.
“We’re a part of the identical system, and we won’t go with out one another, however we’re oftentimes in conflictual conditions. “We wish extra money, they perhaps do not need to give us as a lot cash once we speak concerning the prize cash. There’s so many alternative layers of the prize cash that it’s important to look into. It is not that straightforward.”
#Drawback #MonopolyIts #Exhausting #Break
