Miami Gardens (United States) (AFP) – Novak Djokovic has sought to create some distance between himself and the legal action taken against the ATP and WTA tours by the players’ union he formed, calling on younger players to take a stand. Djokovic said on Thursday that there are some things in the lawsuit from the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA) that he disagrees with and also expressed some discomfort with the language used.
“This is a classic lawsuit, so lawyers to lawyers type of situations,” Djokovic told a press conference at the Miami Open. “So to be quite frank with you, there are things that I agree with in the lawsuit and there are also things that I don’t agree with. I found that maybe some wording was quite strong in there. But I guess the legal team knows what they’re doing and what kind of terminology they’re supposed to use in order to get the right effect,” he added.
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The record 24-time Grand Slam winner co-founded the PTPA in 2020 with Canadian Vasek Pospisil but noticeably was not among the 20 players named in Tuesday’s legal filing. The Serbian said the PTPA had changed over the five years since its founding. “It’s has grown into organization that has full time employees. I think it has around 30 people right now working day-to-day. So they make a lot of different decisions and initiatives moving forward. And I am in an executive committee, but I’m not in power or influence, so I don’t have a veto over decisions or actions that they take,” he explained.
But Djokovic said part of his motivation for keeping his name off the legal action was to send a message to other top players that they needed to begin to speak out. – Step up – “In general, I felt like I don’t need to sign the letter because I want other players to step up. I’ve been very active in tennis politics,” he said, noting his role over years in the players’ council. “I’ve tried to do my very best during my very active career when I was playing the most matches in my career and didn’t have so much time and energy.
“But nevertheless, I felt that it’s also my responsibility in my role to try to use the influence and the role to support players and to fight for their rights and it’s been almost 20 years that I’ve been on the tour. I’ve seen some changes, but you know there’s some fundamental changes there are still yet to be made and I really hope that all the governing bodies including PTPA will come together and solve these issues,” he said.
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz said on Wednesday that he did not agree with the lawsuit but Djokovic said top players had a responsibility to work for change for those lower down the ranks. “You know, a lot of the people have always been relying on me to say something about this matter as I’m doing right now. And I don’t mind talking about it, but I would like to see the current leaders on the respective tours and the future generations…to take a lead and to understand that these issues are important for them.
“And for the players, not just for them, but also for the other players that they’re representing,” he said. “(Even) if you’re not part of the PTPA or whatever, if you’re not part of any body that represents players, you still, as a top player, you’re regarded, celebrated from so many hundreds or thousands of professional tennis players around the world.
“I personally feel that there’s a responsibility and accountability that comes with that. You have to carry that weight with you, you have to always remember that you were also in their shoes and, you know, we all know how hard is in the first year, second year of professional tennis trying to break through,” he said.
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