A group of pro tennis players are teaming up to take on the sport’s biggest governing bodies in an attempt to restructure it.
The Professional Tennis Players Association, which was cofounded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, filed a 163-page antitrust lawsuit in three countries Tuesday describing the governing bodies as a “cartel,” while accusing them of suppressing player wages, opportunities, and competing tournaments, among other allegations.
The lawsuit, which was filed in New York City, London, and Brussels to account for the governing bodies’ global scope, lists the men’s and women’s respective tours (ATP and WTA), the International Tennis Federation (ITF), and International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) as defendants. Notable players listed as plaintiffs include Nick Kyrgios of Australia, Sorana Cîrstea of Romania, and Reilly Opelka of the U.S. The players are represented by Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
At a press conference Tuesday, Vasek Pospisil, a Canadian tennis player listed as one of the plaintiffs, said their goal is not to “destroy,” but rather “setting the sport up to be fixed.” He said the PTPA wants to work with the defendants to “come to a solution to ensure that something like [fracturing the sport] does not happen.”
“We strongly reject the premise of the PTPA’s claims, believe the case to be entirely without merit, and will vigorously defend our position,” the ATP said in a statement. “ATP remains committed to working in the best interests of the game—towards continued growth, financial stability, and the best possible future for our players, tournaments, and fans.”
“The PTPA’s action is both regrettable and misguided, and we will defend our position vigorously in due course,” the WTA said in a statement. In a statement, ITIA said it focuses on maintaining “the highest standards in our work, following best practice and appropriate rules throughout the management of cases, from intelligence gathering through to investigations and, where applicable, sanctions.” ITF declined to comment on the lawsuit in emails to Front Office Sports.
More than 250 players in the sport have been pushing for litigation for two years, the PTPA said in a release. That includes Djokovic, who sits on the PTPA’s executive committee and debated putting his name on the lawsuit, according to The Athletic. He ultimately decided against it in order to keep the attention on the players as a group and not on him.
Among the players’ gripes is the 11-month schedule, having to pay for and coordinate their own travel to events, the conditions they’re forced to compete in, which can include extreme heat and late nights, and the lack of control over their own NIL (name, image, and likeness) rights.
Despite the existence of the PTPA, which was founded in 2019, tennis players are classified as independent contractors, which prevents them from unionizing. The PTPA has engaged with the tennis governing bodies inconsistently since it started, with the hope of avoiding litigation.
“Players are demanding the same rights, protections, and fair treatment that athletes in other major sports — like the NFL, NBA, MLB, WNBA, NWSL, international football and international cricket — have fought for and won,” the PTPA said in a statement.
“Tennis is broken,” said Ahmad Nassar, executive director of the PTPA. “Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent, suppresses their earnings, and jeopardizes their health and safety. We have exhausted all options for reform through dialogue, and the governing bodies have left us no choice but to seek accountability through the courts.”
Speaking to FOS in 2024, U.S. tennis star Taylor Fritz said the sport “absolutely” needs a union, given the lack of voice players have in major decisions. Fritz’s name isn’t on Tuesday’s lawsuit.
“We’re pretty much the only sport that doesn’t have a player union,” Fritz told FOS. “And it’s pretty crazy because there’s a lot of things that are decided, [are] in favor of the tournaments and not in favor of the players. And there’s nothing we can actually do about it.”
The lawsuit also accuses the ATP and WTA tours of price fixing, which limits the compensation players can earn at an event and also prevents other competing events from taking place.
In the lawsuit, the PTPA alleges the tennis groups “collude and reject tournament owners’ requests to increase prize money, ensuring that the system remains rigged in favor of Defendants.”
“Indian Wells wanted to up the prize money and make it the highest-paying tournament, and the board voted against it because they wanted all of that level [tournaments] to have prize money that’s similar,” Fritz told FOS in 2024. “They didn’t want one to be way above the other. So that’s against the players’ interest that we could have made more money. There was no negative for the players. So there’s just one example.”
