Djokovic player union launches legal blitz against governing bodies

A tennis union co-founded by Novak Djokovic on Tuesday announced a series of legal actions aimed at the sport’s governing bodies, alleging “anticompetitive restraints and abusive practices”.

The Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) said it was suing the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), International Tennis Federation (ITF), and International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in a series of actions in the United States, United Kingdom and the European  Union. 

The PTPA was set up by Djokovic and Canadian Vasek Pospisil in 2020. Some 20 players were named as part of at least one of the actions.

“The lawsuits expose systemic abuse, anti-competitive practices, and a blatant disregard for player welfare that have persisted for decades,” said the PTPA statement. “The ATP, WTA, ITF, and ITIA operate as a cartel by implementing a number of draconian, interlocking anticompetitive restraints and abusive practices.”

“Tennis is broken,” said Ahmad Nassar, Executive Director of the PTPA. “Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardises their health and safety.”

The statement listed alleged abuses they are targeting.

It said the defendants “colluded”, “fixing prize money and suppressing player earnings” forcing “an unsustainable schedule” and exploiting players financially.

The bodies show a “disregard for players” by making them “compete in 100-degree (Fahrenheit) heat, endure matches that ended at 3 AM, and play with different and injury-inducing tennis balls”. 

The PTPA also cited image right ownership, sponsorship restrictions and the “draconian system of ranking points”. 

The statement also complained that tennis violates player “privacy rights”. 

“Players are subjected to invasive searches of personal devices, random middle-of-the-night drug tests, and interrogations without legal representation,” it said.

In addition to Djokovic and Pospisil, the seven-member PTPA executive council also includes players, Hubert Hurkacz, Ons Jabeur, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Taylor Townsend and SaiSai Zheng.

Australian Nick Kyrgios, France’s Varvara Gracheva and American Reilly Opelka have joined the PTPA’s case in the United States, while Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Japan’s Taro Daniel have joined the case in the United Kingdom.