Novak Djokovic is probably the most completed males’s tennis participant ever, with the highest career prize money earned in a single season (2015) and general. Given the notoriety, fame and fortune the game has introduced him, you’d suppose the Serb would have little to complain about.
Assume once more.
Djokovic has by no means been a conformist. He is similar anti-vaxxer who organized a event in Croatia on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to ship a message to medical authorities. In 2008, when Kosovo was getting ready to gaining sovereignty from his homeland, he spewed Serbian nationalist rhetoric that earned him extreme backlash.
Extra just lately, he spoke up against anti-doping authorities for exhibiting “favoritism” within the circumstances of Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, in comparison with previous cases involving Simona Halep and Tara Moore.
The insurgent is at it once more.
On Tuesday, the Skilled Tennis Gamers’ Affiliation (PTPA), co-founded by Djokovic in 2021, started authorized motion towards tennis’ governing our bodies, citing “anti-competitive practices and a blatant disregard for participant welfare,” amongst different points.
The 163-page lawsuit, filed on the U.S. District Court docket in New York, alleges that “skilled tennis gamers are caught in a rigged sport” and have “restricted management over their very own careers and types.”
The lawsuit additional alleges that tennis’ governing our bodies — ATP, WTA and ITF — have systematically manipulated prize‑cash buildings, suppressed competitors and imposed rating techniques that stop gamers from in search of alternate strategies of earnings. It additionally accuses the ITIA of invasive anti-doping and anti-corruption practices and an absence of transparency within the dealing with of doping-related bans.
“Following years of good-faith efforts to reform skilled tennis, the PTPA has taken decisive authorized motion,” learn the assertion. “The lawsuits expose systemic abuse, anti-competitive practices, and a blatant disregard for participant welfare which have endured for many years.”
The ATP, WTA and ITF denounced the PTPA’s lawsuit with strongly-worded statements, via The Guardian. The ITF has but to reply.
Among the many 12 plaintiffs named within the lawsuit are Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil, the co-founders of PTPA, Nick Kyrgios and Sorana Cirstea.
Kyrgios instructed Sky Sports activities that the lawsuit was lengthy overdue.
“All of us needed to do one thing for the way forward for tennis,” he stated. “I do know that many gamers, myself included, aren’t proud of the buildings in tennis…This shall be a particular second in tennis, for certain. I feel issues want to vary and it is a huge day for tennis.”
