On Tuesday, Novak Djokovic's tennis union initiated a series of legal lawsuits against the sport's regulatory organizations, alleging "anticompetitive restraints and abusive practices".
The Professional Tennis Players' Association (PTPA) announced that it is 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.
Djokovic and Canadian Vasek Pospisil co-founded the PTPA in 2020. At least one of the acts involved the names of around 20 players.
“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.
Their bodies demonstrate 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 mentioned image rights ownership, sponsorship restrictions, and the "draconian system of ranking points."
The statement also claimed that tennis infringes "privacy rights" for players.
“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.
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