The Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation (PTPA) has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the game’s governing our bodies, accusing them of anti-competitive practices and a disregard for participant welfare.
The PTPA, an impartial gamers’ union co-founded by Novak Djokovic in 2019, stated on Tuesday that after years of good-faith efforts to reform skilled tennis, it had been compelled to take authorized motion to finish “monopolistic management” of the game.
It stated in a press release that, together with greater than a dozen gamers, the PTPA had filed papers in a New York courtroom in opposition to the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour, the Worldwide Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA).
“Tennis is damaged,” Ahmad Nassar, govt director of the PTPA, stated within the assertion. “Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, gamers are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their expertise, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardises their well being and security.
“We’ve got exhausted all choices for reform via dialogue, and the governing our bodies have left us no selection however to hunt accountability via the courts. Fixing these systemic failures isn’t about disrupting tennis, it’s about saving it for the generations of gamers and followers to come back.”
In response, the ATP accused the PTPA of selecting “division and distraction” and having no significant function within the sport.
“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,” the ATP stated in a press release.
“ATP stays dedicated to working in the most effective pursuits of the sport – in direction of continued development, monetary stability, and the absolute best future for gamers, tournaments, and followers.”
The WTA defended its file of rising girls’s tennis, describing the lawsuit as “baseless”.
“Each resolution taken on the WTA Board stage consists of the enter of gamers through their elected Board representatives, and athletes obtain substantial monetary rewards and different advantages from participation within the WTA,” the organisation stated.
Immediately marks a pivotal second within the battle for equity and integrity in tennis. I take pleasure in standing alongside a gaggle of fellow gamers, each women and men, as one of many named plaintiffs in a complete lawsuit concentrating on the ATP and WTA Excursions, the ITIA, and the ITF. The… https://t.co/XohSsD38vB
— Vasek Pospisil (@VasekPospisil) March 18, 2025
‘A giant day for tennis’
In the meantime, Australian tennis participant Nick Kyrgios believes the lawsuit marks a “particular second” and that it was excessive time gamers’ voices had been heard.
Former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios, who’s amongst 12 present and former gamers listed as plaintiffs together with the PTPA within the go well with, stated the group was decided to do one thing for the way forward for the sport.
“I do know that myself and lots of the gamers aren’t proud of the constructions and every part that’s happening in tennis in the meanwhile,” Kyrgios instructed Sky Sports activities.
“This will likely be a particular second in tennis, for certain.
“Issues wanted to vary. It’s a giant day for tennis.”
The PTPA was formally established by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil in 2019 to advocate for gamers.
Pospisil stated the PTPA had spoken to greater than 250 gamers and had loads of assist, together with from the highest gamers.
“The ATP/WTA has unfold a lot concern over time that it’s not simple to place your identify on this publicly. Participant assist for this initiative is simple,” he added.
Whereas participant associations are widespread in skilled sports activities, tennis is completely different in that the gamers function as impartial contractors.
“We’re the one sport on the earth that doesn’t have a gamers’ affiliation. That was the PTPA’s first purpose, to get the gamers to be heard,” Kyrgios stated.
“The ATP simply had a lot energy, they don’t have to point out something to anybody. Now issues should change, they’ll have to point out issues, how issues function and that’s when folks actually realise that it hasn’t actually been achieved appropriately.
“I don’t suppose gamers finally have been very proud of what they earn on the tour in comparison with different sports activities and I feel that’s undoubtedly one of many essential causes.”
Describing the varied governing our bodies as ‘a cartel’, the PTPA, which has additionally begun authorized motion in the UK and the European Union, accuses them of paying “artificially low compensation to skilled tennis gamers” and imposing a “draconian” rating system that forces them to compete in sure tournaments.
The lawsuit calls the schedule unsustainable, says gamers are made to play in excessive warmth and infrequently within the early hours of the morning, that tennis balls chosen by the tournaments are a think about continual accidents, and that gamers’ privateness rights are being abused by random drug exams.
Earlier than submitting the lawsuit, the PTPA stated it met greater than 250 gamers throughout the excursions, together with nearly all of the lads’s and ladies’s high 20.
