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By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Photo Credit: TTV
Professional Tennis Tennis Association (PTPA), supported by Novak Djokovic and investment banker Billfiled a lawsuit in the Federal Court of New York and the United Kingdom and the European Union on Tuesday.
Multiple players, including Nick Kyrgios, Vasek Pospisil, AND Sorana CirsteaAlso support the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that ATP, WTA and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) are actively engaged in corrupt business practices that limit the ability of players to make money and limit their professional lives.
“Tennis is broken,” said Ahmad Nassar, PTPA executive director, in a press release regarding the lawsuit. “After the fascinating veneer promoting the defendants, the players are blocked in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppress their income and endanger their health and safety.
“We have exhausted all the options for reform through dialogue, and the governing bodies have left us no choice but to seek responsibility through the courts.”
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅.Today, PTPA, and on a dozen players, on behalf of the entire professional population, presented a wide range of legal actions against ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA to reform professional tennis. https://t.co/1r4lwqpopp
– Professional Tennis Tennis Association (@ptpaplayers) March 18, 2025
Founded in 2019, PTPA has defended that professional tennis players have more sayings and control over their careers, including sponsorship and the opportunities of profit outside the court that they think are greatly limited to their participation in ATP and WTA events.
PTPA also thinks that players should make more money priced on different tournaments than allowed for WTA and ATP rules.
The judicial proceeding also was raised against the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which oversees anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts in the sport.
PTPA believes that ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA “… function as a cartel by implementing a number of Draconian abusive restrictions and practices, interconnecting anti-competitiveness.” This involves violating players’ intimacy rights through excessive random drug tests, intervening research of their mobile phones and forced to sign illegal arbitration agreements on any dispute.
TanksIn the press release of PTPA, “players do not have the luxury of waiting for better.
Speaking to ESPN, Pospisil said PTPA thought that they had no choice but to file a lawsuit after trying to resolve their cases with other organizations directly. “At one point we just felt like we didn’t have another option,” Pospisil told ESPN. “We did not try to create an association of players not to influence the big change. This has always been the goal from the beginning, and we really have to consider all strategies and ways to eventually achieve that goal.”
ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA had no comment on the lawsuit.
