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The Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA), an organisation co-founded by Novak Djokovic, is seeking an order from the court to prevent the ATP Tour from having “improper, coercive or threatening communications” with players. It was on Tuesday, March 18, when the PTPA had filed lawsuits against the ATP Tour and other tennis bodies for blatantly disregarding player welfare and indulging in anti-competitive practices.
According to the lawsuit filed by PTPA, it is alleged that the ATP are pressuring the players into signing statements pre-prepared by them, while the officials on the world tour have no prior knowledge about the legal action against them, as reported by BBC Sport. Although, in a major surprise, Novak Djokovic, the co-founder, isn’t one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, while Nick Kyrgios is a part of it alongside the PTPA.
I really hope that all the governing bodies, including PTPA, will come together and solve these issues: Novak Djokovic
The Serbian international spoke about the lawsuit on Thursday, March 21, on the sidelines of the Miami Open, stating that he agrees with certain elements of it, but not all of them. He was quoted as saying, “I've seen some changes, but there are some fundamental changes that are still yet to be made and I really hope that all the governing bodies, including PTPA, will come together and solve these issues.”
As part of the PTPA are taking action against various tennis bodies on behalf of all the players, their latest act was the filing of the papers on Friday, March 21, to the United States District Court in New York. In that, they have asked Judge Margaret Garnett to issue an order preventing the defendants in the case from communicating with the players, who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
They are also accusing the ATP of threatening the reduction of prize money and pension contributions in their attempt to offset the legal fees required to fight the case against the PTPA.
