Miami Gardans, Florida – Call groups Professional tennis “A poster”, the Association of Players co -founded by Novak Djokovic It filed an antitrust claim against the tours of women and men, the International Tennis Federation and the Sports Integrity Agency on Tuesday in a Federal Court in New York.
The suit of the Professional Tennis Players Association He says that organizations that direct the sport have “complete control over the salary and work conditions of the players” and their configuration constitutes “violations of textbooks of the state and federal law” that “immunize the professional tennis of the common market forces and deny the professional tennis players and other participants of the industry their right to fair competition.”
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and wants players to get access to more profits, arguing that the governing bodies that supervise the four Grand Slam tournaments: Wimbledon, the United States Open, the open of France and the Australian Open, and other professional events “limit the prize of the awards and limit the ability of the players to earn money out of the court.”
The WTA Tour and the ATP Tour issued separate statements on Tuesday saying that they would defend themselves “vigorously.”
The WTA said that “it has committed to an increase of $ 400 million in the compensation of the players” in recent years and labeled PTPA’s action as a “legal case without foundation” that is “unfortunate and wrong.” The ATP promoted an “important increase in players compensation” that created a “$ 70 million leap in the last five years”, and described the PTPA case “completely without merit.”
“The PTPA has constantly chosen division and distraction through erroneous information about progress,” said the ATP statement. “Five years after its beginning in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to establish a significant role in tennis, making its decision to follow legal actions at this non -surprising situation.”
The ITF and the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which investigates and judges the cases of doping and corruption, declined to comment.
The PTPA was Founded by the 24 times Grand Slam Djokovic and Vasek postpisil champion In August 2020, with the aim of offering representation for players who are independent contractors in a largely individual sport. One of the clarified objectives on the road was to become a kind of full union that negotiates collective bargaining agreements such as those that exist in team sports.
“In recent years, the PTPA, an organization in which I have worked tirelessly since its inception, has made innumerable efforts to collaborate with the tours with the hope of achieving a positive change for players despite these efforts for these attempts to participate in the constructive dialog Our well -being, undervalue our contributions and leaves us without real representation. “
Djokovic is not one of the players who appear as a plaintiff.
“His support for this is already explicit.” I wanted to allow others to take a step forward since this is not just the (organization) of Novak. “
The PTPA said it met with more than 250 players, women and men, and most of the 20 best in the WTA and ATP ranking, before going to court.
“Tennis is broken,” said PTPA executive director Ahmad Nassar, in a press release. “Behind the glamority sand promoted by the defendants, the players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their profits and endangers their health and safety, we have all exhausted to come.”
___
Howard Fendrich has been the AP tennis writer since 2002. He finds his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tenis
