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A group of top tennis players has accused the game’s governing bodies of trapping them in an unfair system, suppressing their earnings and putting their health at risk, in a legal action that seeks to shake up the sport.
The Professional Tennis Players Association, co-founded by Serbian star Novak Djokovic, claimed in a complaint filed on Tuesday that the organisations behind the men’s and women’s tours ran a “cartel” alongside the game’s international governing body.
In the claim, the PTPA and 12 players including Nick Kyrgios and Zheng Saisai accused the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association of harming players and fans through anti-competitive practices such as capping prize money and colluding to reduce competition among tournaments.
The claim, filed in the Southern District of New York, is the latest escalation in a push by players for a bigger slice of the billions of dollars in revenues generated by professional tennis, including through tournaments. The PTPA has said it intends to take similar actions in the UK and Europe.
It follows challenges to the established power brokers of other sports by a range of groups from private investors to football clubs, and comes as external investors seek to muscle in on the industry.
Golf has been shaken up by the creation of the Saudi-backed LIV series while top European football clubs have tried, unsuccessfully, to create a breakaway super league that would allow them to capture more revenues.
Tuesday’s court claim also named the International Tennis Federation — the sport’s global governing body — and the International Tennis Integrity Agency — a body responsible for anti-doping and match-fixing checks — as defendants.
The non-profit PTPA is affiliated to Winners Alliance, a for-profit company chaired by hedge fund tycoon Bill Ackman that aims to create new business models in sport.
Winners Alliance has already invested in a new athletics competition fronted by former Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson, which is aiming to overhaul the sport, elevate the profile of top athletes and offer them higher pay.
The lawsuit follows efforts by the PTPA, founded by Djokovic and Canadian player Vasek Pospisil in 2019, to advocate for improved conditions for players.
It seeks several remedies including damages from the governing bodies and disgorgement of profits earned from their alleged wrongdoing.
It also criticises the system by which players collect global ranking points. The points dictate which tournaments players can compete in and affect their sponsorship opportunities but are awarded only for competitions that are part of the defendants’ tours, putting alternative events at a disadvantage, the lawsuit claims.
The filing accused the ITIA of combating doping and match-fixing with measures that were “far more draconian and invasive than necessary to achieve those aims because the players have no competitor tour or tournaments to turn to”.
