Mumbai: Taking tennis’ governing bodies to court was “not our first choice” but one that eventually “we felt like, and players felt like, was the only choice” to “reform tennis from within”, Ahmad Nassar, executive director of the Novak Djokovic co-founded Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA), told HT in an interview.
Novak Djokovic at the Miami Open tennis tournament on Sunday. His players body, PTPA, has taken tennis governing bodies to court demanding administrative reform. (Getty Images via AFP)
Last Tuesday, the PTPA filed a lawsuit against the men’s (ATP) and women’s (WTA) tours, along with the ITF and ITIA, over the way professional tennis is run. It shook the tennis world and elicited varied views from top players.
Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek distanced themselves from it; world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff acknowledged the issue of higher revenue percentage from prize money for players; Djokovic, the body’s co-founder, said there were parts of the 163-page lawsuit that he agreed with and did not, but 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 executive director since 2022, said they “started to see some real themes” around the primary issues while speaking to players. Schedule, player compensation, and overall player exploitation were the most consistent.
The tennis calendar, most players have concurred, is too long and hectic. The governing bodies have reportedly mulled a restructuring of the tour, known as “premium tour”, with streamlined calendar and larger pay. Nothing official has come out so far.
“Everybody is kind of stuck. We hope these legal actions will get everyone unstuck and moving in the right direction,” Nassar told 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 tours “split less than 20% of their revenue with players”. Although the tours and Grand Slams have frequently raised the prize money pot over the years, Forbes’s 2024 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes (on- and off-field earnings) does not feature a tennis player in the top 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 said.
“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” overall that are able to make a living out of it, and how most in the 250-500 rankings bracket — most Indian pros 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 said.
He highlighted the anti-doping systems and different balls “week to week and tournament to tournament” among other prominent player concerns.
The lawsuit advocates for a free market, without the financial caps and restricted opportunities to play and earn beyond the tours. Wouldn’t that, however, run the risk of having no checks and balances? Nassar pointed to similar lawsuits in the NBA in the 1970s and NFL in 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 said.
Apart from Djokovic, who co-founded the body with Vasek Pospisil in 2020, PTPA has some well-known current players in its executive committee, including 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 said.
The governing bodies have collectively responded in defence. The ATP said they “strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position”. As the legal battle plays out, Nassar hoped for a negotiated settlement as the ideal solution.
“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.”
