Players' group founded by Novak Djokovic files an antitrust suit against tennis organizers

Canada's Vasek Pospisil and Serbia's Novak Djokovic talk tactics during their double match against during their Round of 32 match at the Adelaide International Tennis tournament in Adelaide, Australia, Jan. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Kelly Barnes, File)

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Calling the groups in charge of professional tennis “a cartel,” the players' association co-founded by Novak Djokovic filed an antitrust lawsuit against the women’s and men’s tours, the International Tennis Federation and the sport’s integrity agency on Tuesday in federal court in New York.

The suit by the Professional Tennis Players' Association says the organizations that run the sport hold “complete control over the players’ pay and working conditions” and their setup constitutes “textbook violations of state and federal law” that “immunize professional tennis from ordinary market forces and deny professional tennis players and other industry participants their right to fair competition.”

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and wants players to gain access to more earnings, arguing that the governing bodies that oversee the four Grand Slam tournaments — Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Australian Open — and other professional events “cap the prize money tournaments award and limit players’ ability to earn money off the court.”

On top of the case in U.S. District Court, the PTPA made filings with the European Commission in Brussels and the Competition Markets Authority in London.

“There is a complete and utter lack of competition that exists in professional tennis, and we believe by filing these actions, we will ultimately inject the kind of competition that will be fair to the players, to the fans and actually to the people (who) operate the system,” said Jim Quinn, a lawyer working with the PTPA.

“It’s going to require a restructuring,” Quinn said.

The WTA Tour and ATP Tour issued separate statements Tuesday saying they would “vigorously” defend themselves.

The WTA said it has “committed to a $400 million increase in player compensation” in recent years and labeled the PTPA action a “baseless legal case” that is “regrettable and misguided.” The ATP touted a “major increase in player compensation” that created a jump of “$70 million in the past five years,” and called the PTPA’s case “entirely without merit.”

“The PTPA has consistently chosen division and distraction through misinformation over progress,” the ATP’s statement said. “Five years on from its inception in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to establish a meaningful role in tennis, making its decision to pursue legal action at this juncture unsurprising.”

The International Tennis Integrity Agency — which investigates and adjudicates doping and corruption — said it noted the PTPA’s action but did not offer any direct reaction to the case itself.

A spokesman said the ITF “will take the appropriate time to consider our response.”

The PTPA was founded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil in August 2020, aiming to offer representation for players who are independent contractors in a largely individual sport. One of the goals made clear along the way was to become a sort of full-fledged union that negotiates collective bargaining agreements like those that exist in team sports.

“Beyond just the economics, we see ... player welfare is completely disregarded in everything, from the tour schedule to anti-competitive practices, to abusing our rights around name, image, likeness,” Pospisil said.

He is one of the players listed as a plaintiff; Djokovic is not. Players whose names are attached to the U.S. lawsuit include 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, Sorana Cirstea, Varvara Gracheva, Reilly Opelka, Tennys Sandgren and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.

PTPA executive director Ahmad Nassar said Djokovic is “certainly very involved, very up to speed. He is still a sitting member of our executive committee at the PTPA. ... This is about much more than one player.”

The PTPA said it met with more than 250 players — women and men, and a majority of the top 20 in the WTA and ATP rankings — before going to court.

“We’ve seen the Grand Slams try to change some things unsuccessfully. We’ve seen the tours themselves try to change things unsuccessfully. We’ve seen outside money try to come in and change things unsuccessfully. And so we really think this is the only path forward, and we don’t do this lightly, whatsoever,” Nassar said. ”But we think it was necessary, because the players really do demand to be heard, to have their issues taken seriously, to address these structural issues that plague tennis and really choke it as an international sport, and to create a system that brings balance and equality and fairness to really the entire business of tennis.”

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press