Novak Djokovic’s union takes legal action against ‘corrupt’ tennis bodies

Nick Kyrgios has joined Novak Djokovic’s players’ union in legal action that represents the biggest threat to the professional tennis tour in decades.

Nick Kyrgios has been as one of the parties in legal action brought on by the players’ union co-founded by Novak Djokovic. Picture: AFP

Polarising star Nick Kyrgios has joined Novak Djokovic’s players’ union in a bombshell lawsuit aimed at the sport’s governing bodies, alleging “anti-competitive restraints and abusive practices”.

The Professional Tennis Players Association, co-founded by Djokovic in 2020, has launched legal actions in the UK, US and the EE against tour organisers the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association. The International Tennis Federation and International Tennis Integrity Agency were also named as defendants.

The governing bodies were accused of operating a “corrupt, illegal system”, and of running a price-fixing cartel to “systemically abuse, silence and exploit players to drive personal profits through monopolistic control”.

Djokovic is not named in the lawsuit, although the union’s co-founder, Vasek Pospisil, the Canadian former Wimbledon doubles champion, and Kyrgios are named as parties to the legal action.

The 22-time grand slam champion is, however, said by the PTPA to be strongly supportive of the legal blitz and has been in close contact with officials about it.

It represents the biggest threat to how professional tennis has operated for decades and reflects anger among players at the restrictions – and the demands – placed on them. The move follows legal action by football’s players’ unions against FIFA last year for alleged abuses of power.

While yet to make a formal statement, Kyrgios took to social media platform X to insist that other high-profile players will join the legal action.

In a response to tennis blogger Pavvy G post: “I understand why some of the players don’t want to be named for fear of any reprisals against them. It’s still David v Goliath,” Kyrgios responded. “There are top players – don’t worry about that (crossed fingers emoji).”

The 29-year-old, who has won an estimated $20m in prizemoney, also reposted a tweet from Pospisil, in which he said the ATP and WTA had “done a great job of spreading fear for far too long. Top players and those of all different ranks support this. Putting their names publicly is a ‘scary’ proposition given the abusive environment we’ve worked in for years.”

The PTPA said it had met more than 250 players, including most of the men’s and women’s top 20 players, and received overwhelming support. It insisted it was not seeking to open the way to a breakaway tennis competition such as LIV Golf, but to increase the rewards for players and lessen the demands on them.

The lawsuits – filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the European Commission in Brussels and the Competition and Markets Authority in London – claim that the bodies have had “a blatant disregard for player welfare that has persisted for decades”.

PTPA executive director Ah-mad Nassar said: “Tennis is broken. Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardises their health and safety. We have exhausted all options for reform through dialogue.”

The organisations are accused of operating as a cartel, including:

● Colluding to suppress competition between and among tournaments and prevent any potential competitors from entering the market.

● Fixing prizemoney and suppressing player earnings rather than allowing a free market to dictate the amounts that players earn.

● The ranking system prevents players from being able to compete in rival organisers’ tournaments.

● Ensuring top tennis players “earn a fraction of what top athletes in other sports earn”.

● The professional tennis season is “unsustainable”, lasting 11 months of the year and so “leaving little to no room for players to rest and recover”.

● Players were forced to compete in extreme heat and play matches that ended at 3am.

● Players are forced to sign over their image rights “for zero compensation”.

● Players are subjected to invasive searches of personal devices, random middle-of-the-night drug tests, and interrogations without legal representation.

Former Australian Open tournament director, and tour player, Paul McNamee noted the grand slams were missing from the legal action. While he said “lawsuits are never a good idea”, he felt the ATP tour needed change.

“The grand slams are highly conspicuous by their absence in this lawsuit – which I think is a good thing given the massive increase in prizemoney overhaul in the grand slams, but especially to the lower-ranked players in qualifying,” he said.

“I don’t like the direction the ATP has been going, in my opinion it’s been a flawed model for the last decade by increasing the power and influence of the Masters 1000s (which is the highest tier of the ATP tour).”

“I just don’t understand why tennis has one big tournament a week – when golf has three or four big tournaments a week. Which is what all this is about.

“There is no diversity – I am a fan of the golf model.

“I have always felt there should be more choices for players and where they want to play.

“By making everyone play the same tournaments, Masters 1000s, the value of those ATP tournaments has increased exponentially for the tournament owners – and that doesn’t flow to the players.”

Pospisil said: “I’m one of the more fortunate players and I still had to sleep in my car when travelling to matches early on in my career – imagine an NFL player being told that he had to sleep in his car at an away game.

“It’s absurd.”

The ATP and WTA vowed to defend themselves against the claims.

The ATP said the PTPA’s case was “entirely without merit”.

“The PTPA has consistently chosen division and distraction through misinformation over progress,” the ATP said.

“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims.”

In addition to Djokovic and Pospisil, the seven-member PTPA executive council includes players Hubert Hurkacz, Ons Jabeur, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Taylor Townsend and Zheng Saisai. Kyrgios, France’s Varvara Gracheva and American Reilly Opelka have joined the PTPA’s case in the US, while Frenchman Corentin Moutet and Japan’s Taro Daniel have joined the case in the UK.

Additional reporting: The Times