Tennis stars from left top to bottom right: Sinner, Djokovic, and Swiatek
The dust around the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) lawsuit against the ATP and WTA has barely settled and another storm has hit tennis.
According to French paper L’Equipe, the top 20 players on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour “have co-signed and sent a letter to the four Grand Slam tournaments, demanding a substantial increase in their prize money”.
This move comes just two weeks after the PTPA – which was co-founded by tennis great Novak Djokovic – launched legal action against the ATP and WTA Tours, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) as they accused of them implementing “anticompetitive restraints and abusive practices”.
Twelve plaintiffs were named in the legal documents, but Djokovic’s name was absent with Vasek Pospisil, Nick Kyrgios and Reilly Opelka among the high-profile players.
But Djokovic – currently No 5 in the ATP Rankings – is among the top 20 men’s players with Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Jack Draper, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur completing the top 10.
The WTA Rankings are led by Aryna Sabalenka and she is followed by Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Jasmine Paolini, Mirra Andreeva, Zheng Qinwen, Paula Badosa and Elena Rybakina.
L’Equipe reports that the 40 players want more prize money from the organisers of the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open, stating: “In essence, this letter calls for a greater distribution of profits generated by the four pillars of the tour to benefit the main stakeholders: the players, without whom the show would not take place.”
The ATP and WTA Players’ Boards have given the letter the green light and while some of the men’s players who has signed letter are yet to comment, some women’s stars have been asked for their opinions.
World No 4 Pegula told Bounces By Ben Rothenberg: “Yeah, I think that’s something I don’t want to talk about too much. It’s just something that we’re working with our WTA PBR [Player Board Representatives] with, and hopefully we’ll have more information about that soon. But I don’t want to go into that too much just because—I don’t know—I shouldn’t.”
2024 Australian Open runner-up Zheng said: “I think that that’s going to be more benefit for all the players, not only the top players, especially for those players that work hard during all the years and need to get paid from the Slams.
“They have to survive. They also need to pay for a good team to be able to have a good chance to win the match. So I think that’s really positive.”
