Why a tennis players' association has sued the groups that run the sport - and what they want

Howard Fendrich · The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 19, 2025 8:01 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

Ons Jabeur is simply a three-time Grand Slam finalist with much than $13 cardinal US successful prize wealth by property 30, and arsenic she looked retired astatine the main tribunal utilized for the Miami Open this week and next, she rattled disconnected a lengthy database of things she thinks could beryllium fixed successful nonrecreational tennis to assistance each players.

"We request to amended the operation that we have. ... We tin bash amended astir the scheduling. The times of matches. There are a batch of tournaments, and health-wise, for the players, I don't deliberation that helps. The balls changing each week is not a bully thing. Players merit to beryllium paid better," said Jabeur, a subordinate of the enforcement committee of the Professional Tennis Players' Association, a radical co-founded by Novak Djokovic respective years ago. "Definitely a batch of things to enactment on."

Those issues Jabeur mentioned were among those raised successful a class-action antitrust suit filed by the PTPA successful national tribunal successful New York connected Tuesday, calling the groups successful complaint of the athletics — the women's (WTA) and men's (ATP) tours, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the bureau that oversees anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts (ITIA) — a "cartel."

"The players truly bash request to beryllium heard, to person their issues taken seriously, to code these structural issues that plague tennis and truly choke it arsenic an planetary sport," said PTPA enforcement manager Ahmad Nassar, "and to make a strategy that brings equilibrium and equality and fairness to truly the full concern of tennis."

Here is simply a look astatine the suit — and determination are akin actions moving guardant successful Brussels and London — and what it could mean for tennis:

What is the PTPA?

The PTPA was founded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil and announced to the satellite conscionable earlier the 2020 U.S. Open. The purpose was to correspond players who are autarkic contractors successful a mostly idiosyncratic sport; tennis does not person a full-fledged national that negotiates corporate bargaining agreements arsenic successful squad sports.

The PTPA said it met with much than 250 players — women and men, and a bulk of the apical 20 successful the WTA and ATP rankings — earlier going to court.

Why did tennis players writer those successful complaint of the sport?

The suit seeks much wealth for players, yes, and lays retired a bid of different complaints astir the mode the athletics is run.

That includes criticisms related to giving excessively small of the sport's revenues to players, limiting prize wealth each tourney tin offer, preventing contention from rival tours oregon events, a "45-week-per-year schedule," the accrued fig of combined WTA-ATP events that past 12 days apiece, lucifer schedules that sometimes support players connected tribunal good past midnight, a rankings strategy that restricts which events the athletes enter, and a "heavy-handed approach" by the International Tennis Integrity Agency that the suit termed "arbitrary and selective."

"Player payment is wholly disregarded successful everything, from the circuit docket to anti-competitive practices, to abusing our rights astir name, image, likeness," Pospisil said.

Why were the Grand Slam tournaments not named arsenic defendants?

The PTPA classified the 4 large events — Wimbledon, U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open — arsenic co-conspirators that autumn nether the ITF, alternatively than making them abstracted defendants.

According to the filing, those 4 Grand Slam tournaments "generated implicit $1.5 cardinal collectively successful 2024, portion lone paying betwixt (10 of gross to players."

But, Nassar said, "The Slams can't unilaterally hole the schedule. They can't hole anti-doping. They can't hole the aesculapian issues. They can't hole the prize wealth conspiracy and price-fixing that exists astatine each different level astatine each different tournament."

Why is Djokovic not a plaintiff? Who are immoderate of the players named?

Pospisil is listed arsenic a plaintiff — 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, Sorana Cirstea, Varvara Gracheva, Reilly Opelka and Tennys Sandgren are immoderate of the others — portion Djokovic is not.

"This is astir overmuch much than 1 player," Nassar said, noting that Djokovic, arsenic a subordinate of the enforcement committee, is "very involved, precise up to speed."

What was the effect from defendants specified arsenic the WTA and ATP?

The WTA called the filing "regrettable and misguided." The ATP said the lawsuit is "entirely without merit," and added: "The PTPA has consistently chosen part and distraction done misinformation implicit progress. ... The PTPA has struggled to found a meaningful relation successful tennis, making its determination to prosecute ineligible enactment astatine this juncture unsurprising."

What could the suit mean for tennis successful the abbreviated word and the agelong term?

As with galore a lawsuit, it is hard to cognize what the semipermanent effects could be, of course, though this surely puts successful achromatic and achromatic the schism that exists betwixt the sport's leaders and galore of its athletes.

Maybe determination volition beryllium a settlement? Maybe the players volition get obscurity and thing volition beryllium different? Maybe determination volition beryllium a tribunal ruling that forces change?

If the second happens, PTPA lawyer Jim Quinn predicted, "It's going to necessitate a restructuring."