By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, March 20, 2025
Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty
Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic is one of several stars supporting the PTPA’s lawsuit against the ATP, WTA and ITF.
Don’t count Carlos Alcaraz among the advocates of the PTPA’s legal action.
MORE: PTPA Files Lawsuit Against ATP, WTA, ITF
Speaking to the media at the Miami Open on Thursday, Alcaraz said he was not aware of the lawsuit before its filing and doesn’t support it.
“Honestly, it was surprising for me, because nobody told me nothing about it,” Alcaraz told the media in Miami. “Only yesterday I saw in the social media…
“I saw that there were some statements that they put something that I said in press conference, which I didn’t know. I don’t support that letter. I don’t support that, because, as I said, I didn’t know anything about it.”
Led by Novak Djokovic, investment banker Bill Ackman and Canadian Vasek Pospisil, the PTPA filed a lawsuit in the New York Federal Court and the United Kingdom and European Union on Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims that the ATP, WTA, and International Tennis Federation (ITF) are actively engaged in corrupt business practices that limit players’ ability to earn money and restrict their professional lives.
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀.Today, the PTPA and over a dozen players, on behalf of the entire professional population, filed a sweeping series of legal actions against the ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA to reform professional tennis. https://t.co/1r4LWQpopP
— Professional Tennis Players Association (@ptpaplayers) March 18, 2025
Founded in 2019, the PTPA advocates that players should earn more prize money at various tournaments than they are allowed per WTA and ATP rules.
Djokovic said despite the fact the PTPA “were not accepted” by the ATP, WTA and Grand Slams, the organization is gaining traction and financial backing and “needs to live.”
“I think there’s a lot of legal challenges along the way,” Djokovic said in a past interview. “We managed to overcome all those challenges, and we are gathering the right team of people with advisory board, people that are going to help with financing the association, of course people from the tennis world that will help us establish ourselves within the ecosystem, which I think is very important as we were not accepted and embraced by Grand Slams, ATP nor WTA, so it makes things difficult for us, but this association needs to live.”
The PTPA is vital because it’s solely devoted to giving players a voice in the decision-making process that impacts the sport, Djokovic said.
“It needs to be there because players don’t have 100 percent representation in the tennis world, unfortunately,” Djokovic said. “With the association they have that. Hopefully more players will be showing the willingness to understand what PTPA can do for them.”
Reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz said while he has concerns about scheduling issues, he doesn’t support the PTPA’s suit.
“There are some things that I agree with, there are some other things that I’m not agreeing with, but the main thing here is that I’m not supporting that, so that’s it,” Alcaraz said.
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