Novak Djokovic leads push for new union in pay fight

Novak Djokovic has raised the prospect of forming an independent player union to fight for greater prizemoney.

Novak Djokovic during a practice session ahead of his opening round match. Picture: AAP

The threat of a power shift in men’s tennis is brewing at the Australian Open after Novak Djokovic raised the prospect of forming an independent player union to fight for greater prizemoney.

Djokovic, the 12-time grand slam champion, surprised many of those present at a mandatory male player meeting in Melbourne on Friday by taking to the stage and suddenly asking for ATP officials and any non-players to leave the room.

Djokovic, who is the president of the ATP player council, then addressed those remaining with his belief that tennis falls short in rewarding its players with sufficient prize money, compared to other sports. Basketball’s NBA was one example given.

An Australian professor, with specialist knowledge of workplace law, then joined Djokovic on stage to explain the process behind setting up a new player union. This would break away from the present set-up under the ATP, the governing body of the men’s professional tennis circuit which jointly represents the interests of both the players and tournaments.

This was merely the early stages of a proposal and there are no indications that this is likely to happen soon. It is understood that there is still much work to do in convincing a number of players of the merits of such a move.

Djokovic’s intervention came as a shock to ATP officials. After the traditional state of the nation address by the executive chairman and president, Chris Kermode, a question and answer session followed with Ross Hutchins, the chief player officer. Hutchins did not have the opportunity to finish his answer to a player’s question on a Challenger tournament issue when Djokovic suddenly took control of proceedings.

Earlier in the evening, the tournament director of the Australian Open, Craig Tiley, had made a presentation in which he outlined plans to almost double the total prizemoney pot at the first grand slam of the year from $54.5m million to $100m.

Among those in attendance at the meeting were Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. The former two will be asked directly for their thoughts on Djokovic’s proposal after their respective first-round matches over the next 24 hours, while Murray is understood to back the idea that players are underpaid in comparison to other sports.

There certainly has been a feeling for some time in the locker room that the players’ share of revenue at the grand slams — which is presently around 7 to 8 per cent — falls short.

Considering that the winner of this year’s Australian Open receives a cheque of $4 million and first-round losers pocket $60,670 the general public may argue otherwise.

“It was a discussion, nothing more than that.” replied Kevin Anderson, the world No 12 who is the vice-president of the ATP player council, when asked about Djokovic’s proposal.

The Times