“Beyond just the economics, we see … player welfare is completely disregarded in everything, from the tour schedule to anti-competitive practices, to abusing our rights around name, image, likeness,” Pospisil said.
He is one of the players listed as a plaintiff; Djokovic is not. Players whose names are attached to the U.S. lawsuit include 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, Sorana Cirstea, Varvara Gracheva, Reilly Opelka, Tennys Sandgren and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.
Read More: Carlos Alcaraz doesn’t support the lawsuit from tennis players’ group Novak Djokovic founded
PTPA executive director Ahmad Nassar said Djokovic is “certainly very involved, very up to speed. He is still a sitting member of our executive committee at the PTPA. … This is about much more than one player.”
The PTPA said it met with more than 250 players—women and men, and a majority of the top 20 in the WTA and ATP rankings—before going to court.
“We’ve seen the Grand Slams try to change some things unsuccessfully. We’ve seen the tours themselves try to change things unsuccessfully. We’ve seen outside money try to come in and change things unsuccessfully. And so we really think this is the only path forward, and we don’t do this lightly, whatsoever,” Nassar said.
“But we think it was necessary, because the players really do demand to be heard, to have their issues taken seriously, to address these structural issues that plague tennis and really choke it as an international sport, and to create a system that brings balance and equality and fairness to really the entire business of tennis.”
