After chiding ITIA over its handling of doping allegations surrounding Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, Novak Djokovic has now aimed at ATP, arguing that the organization fails to provide adequate support for players to earn as much salary as athletes of other sports rake.
Novak Djokovic fights for fellow tennis players
During a press conference at the Brisbane International, he said, “We have problem there. We have a problem in the very - how can I say - structure of the ATP is that as players we only have the 50% of that organization. There's always - not always but a lot of times there was conflict of interest between tournaments and players. We wanted different thing. The pie split between the governing bodies in major sports, all major American sports, like NFL, NBA, baseball, NHL, is 50% maybe more, some less, but around 50%. Ours is way lower than that. It is true.”
Djokovic in the past formed the Professional Tennis Players’ Association to address these concerns. During an earlier interview with a CBS program, he said, “Women and men who are around 200 and lower ranked in the world, they are struggling a lot. They can’t afford a coach, they can’t afford travels, they skip tournaments, many of them leave tennis who are super talented and maybe capable of reaching great heights and successes, but they just can’t make it.”
Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek's Case
The 24-time Grand Slam winner recently brought ITIA to the focal point over doping cases, suggesting that tennis players are held to different standards. He implied that athletes like Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, who have the means to afford top legal representation, may receive bias. This comes after Sinner's doping controversy during his 2024 US Open title run, where his test results showcased that he has taken the clostebol substance, but an independent tribunal initially cleared him due to unintentional contamination. However, the WADA appealed the decision to the CAS, which will deliver its verdict this year.
Swiatek's doping scandal on the other hand made waves in November when the ITIA announced that her sample from August had been found positive for contamination of melatonin pills. She was initially suspended for 22 days but later the suspension period was extended to one month.