By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_now | Friday, March 21, 2025
Photo Credit: Matthew Calvis
When Grand Slam King Novak Djokovic Polls of tennis landscape, it has been hit by disturbing vision.
Formerly -Bota Nr. 1 Gjokovic sees the sport dragging on to a tennis feudal system with leadership organs and some flourishing tours while players are receiving prices outside the competition.
Meeting with media in Miami before his first round match against Hijikata Rinky, Gjokovic was asked to appreciate the PTPA lawsuit against ATP, WTA and ITF.
The Olympic Champion of the Gold Medal Djokovic said the main issue is the players, especially the lower ranking players, are not receiving a suitable part of the revenue. As a result, some lower -ranking players are forced to leave the sport simply because they cannot afford the cost of global travel and training.
“Currently, there are not enough players (making A) living from this sport at the highest level, we are earning good money,” Djokovic media told Miami. “But the reason why I have spoken for years about the equal division of the pie, or the increase in pricing money is due to the levels founded.
“And men and women, professional tennis players who are struggling to continue playing the sport. I know, personally, large numbers of players who have left tennis, especially during Covid’s time because of the lack of funds.
Gjokovic appreciates about 400 players who earn in the pros and consider that tennis is one of the most watched sports and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in gambling, that number is unacceptable to him.
“I think it’s probably – bachelors, doubles, men, women combined – maybe about 400 (players living from tennis),” Djokovic said. “Which is not enough for a very global sport we have. I want to see that number expand. I have said this in the media in the last few years.
“But based on some studies and studies that have been done on the popularity of sports tennis is actually the third or fourth most popular sport on the planet. I think we are sharing the third place with crickets. Number one is definitely football, or football, as we call it) its basketball, and we were followed by more than 2 billion people. People, but with its maximization, and in value, we, we, we, we are worth, we are not worth it, we, and we were followed by commerciality, and we were followed, we are worth, we, and we were followed, we are worth, we are worth, we are, and we are, we are, We, are not worth it.
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.
So given the mass number of audiences and income in the discussion, why don’t the players and governing bodies have to elaborate on a mutual agreement? Why did the PTPA filed the Block’s lawsuit against ATP, WTA and ITF without a final effort to reach an agreement?
Gjokovic said the reason is simple: he looks at the current political structure of ATP as a “monopoly”
“The common ground and a common direction that would be satisfactory or winner for all,” Gjokovic said. “The problem is that there is also a monopoly that has been there for decades, and it’s hard to break it, and players often get a shorter end of stick.
“And I think it’s right for every player, really, to talk about this issue. So I think I’m towards the end of my career, and many of the people have always been relying on me to say something about this issue, as I’m doing now, and I don’t care about talking about it.
“But I would like to see the current leaders of the respective tournaments and future generations who will lead this sport for the coming decades, take a lead, and realize that these issues, these topics, these topics, are important to them and for the players, and not only for them, but also for the other players they are representing.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, ATP exploded PTPA’s claims for corruption as “completely without merit” and further overthrew PTPA for trying to draw attention to its cause through “separation and distraction”.
“While the ATP has remained focused on providing reforms that benefit players at multiple levels, PTPA has repeatedly chosen sharing and distraction through designs on progress,” ATP said in a statement. “Five years since its beginning in 2020, PTPA has fought to create a significant role in tennis, making his decision to follow legal actions at this unexpected point.
“We strongly reject the premises of the PTPA claims, we believe that the issue is completely merit without merit, and will strongly protect our position. ATP remains committed to working in the best interest of the game – towards continued growth, financial stability and the best possible future for our players, tournaments and fans.”
Gjokovic, a former President of the Council of Players of ATP and Vasek Postpisil, founded the professional tennis association with the aim of giving players in favor of total representation in the game decision-making process.
In recent interviews, Gjokovic has repeated his long claim that the Board of Directors of the ATP directors has been broken and does not properly represent the player’s interest.
“We have a problem in our own – as I can say – the structure of ATP is that as players we have only 50% of that organization,” Djokovic said. “There has been many times a conflict of interest between tournaments and players. We wanted different things.
“We are part of the same system, and we cannot go without one another, but we are often in conflicting situations.” We want more money, they probably don’t want to give us so much money when talking about price money. There are so many different layers of price money to look at. It’s not that simple. ”
