Qua Vadis–PTPA? tennisnet.com

Since the PTPA was announced, the tennis world has been puzzling over whether the establishment of the player advocacy group Novak Djokovic leading to a split in the dominant organization through ATP, WTA, ITF and the Grand Slam tournaments. These doubts should be dispelled in an open letter – signed by the players represented on the Executive Committee. Nevertheless, the questions about the concrete implementation remain open.

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Thunderbolt ahead of US Open 2020

It really sounded like a revolution when the former members of the ATP Player Advisory Council, Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil, announced the formation of the new player advocacy group PTPA right before the US Open 2020 in order to achieve more transparency and fairness for the players: can be reached inside on the various tours.

Expertise from other sports

After the launch, however, things should remain quiet for a long time. Since industry leader Djokovic criticized that tennis, despite its immense global spread, would not achieve anywhere near the same financial profit for the players as the American professional leagues, this issue should be tackled first in terms of personnel. In August 2022, Ahmad Nassar was introduced as Executive Director of the PTPA, who as CEO of the so-called “Winners Alliance” should tackle the topic of profit maximization. His experience as former president of the NFL Players’ Association, where he was able to dramatically increase the player share of total sales, underscores the seriousness of the project.

Eight players on the Executive Committee

The composition of the Executive Committee was announced in January this year. With Novak Djokovic, Vasek Pospisil, Hubert Hurkacz, John Isner and the female colleagues Ons Jabeur, Paula Badosa, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Saisai Zheng, the balanced composition also set an example in the direction of equality and equal pay. After the Spaniard Bernabe Zapata-Miralles, current member of the ATP Players Council, recently said in an interview that the PTPA would generate a split, the interest group felt compelled to publish an open letter on this topic

“Give Players a Voice”

In it, the signing members of the Executive Committee make it clear that the PTPA will not form any further entity alongside the existing organizations such as ATP, WTA, ITF and the Grand Slam tournaments and is therefore not to be seen as a union. According to Pospisil, who in a separate interview with ESPN stated that he had spoken to 300 to 400 players, the interests and rights of tennis individualists should be protected in a similar way as in the players’ unions in American professional leagues.

Contact with the existing organizations

Executive Director Nassar confirmed promising talks with the tour organizations ATP and WTA: “I see agreement in many goals and I think that we can work together in the future.” What this cooperation could look like and what specific measures are on the PTA agenda , was not detailed in the letter. So it remains exciting to see whether the real implementation of the project can keep up with the complex public relations work.

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Djokovic Novak

Isner John

Hubert Hurkacz

badosa paula