In the pandemic-restricted 2020 US Open, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and fellow ATP player Vasek Pospisil confirmed the creation of the Professional Tennis Player Association (PTPA). Since then, the PTPA has been diligently working behind the scenes in developing an infrastructure of players who are willing to help them for the betterment of the game by making sure tennis organizers treat all players fairly.
Recently, organizers have been blamed for poor match fixtures and ball but the most annoying happened at the WTA Finals in Cancun, where the women players were disrespected from the beginning of the event to the end.
Novak Djokovic’s PTPA addresses 2023 WTA Finals complains
The WTA Finals organizers first disrespected the women tennis players by announcing the host location (Cancun) a month before the season-ending tournament was to begin. When the players arrived in Cancun, they were shocked to meet a stadium construction that was just getting finished.
The players were able to train the stadium a day before the start of the WTA Finals which was really terrible. And after hitting the court, the players publicly complained about the poor court conditions and windy weather conditions but nothing was done because the event had to go on.
Novak Djokovic’s PTPA released a statement announcing that the event was embarrassment to the game, “The recently concluded WTA Finals not only disappointed players and fans, but also cast a shadow over the sport of tennis and women’s sports in general.”
“Last week, the PTPA chose to remain silent out of respect for the dedicated players who put in a year of hard work to get there, and the local organizers unfairly trapped in an impossible situation. Now that the event is behind us, we hereby invite the WTA to co-commission an independent, third-party report that delves into the numerous, glaring breakdowns that occurred over the past several months.”
“This is how we build lasting solutions: we must step beyond the confines of our insular tennis hierarchy and actively seek outside expertise to ensure these mistakes do not continue. We will await the WTA’s response within 10 days to join us in this crucial effort for the betterment of women’s tennis,” the PTPA said in the statement.
Most of the games were stopped and rescheduled due to the torrent downpour and ever-changing weather conditions. Nevertheless, Iga Swiatek won the WTA Finals without a loss.
Why did Novak Djokovic form PTPA?
In 2020, Novak Djokovic co-founded the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) to make sure that players ranked low in the world ranking would not continue to experience the difficulties of not having a strong federation behind them or a strong budget to finance their careers.
In September during an interview, 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic revealed that PTPA’s goal is to fight and ensure better rights and conditions of all players. Djokovic specifically emphasized that helping the lower-ranked players was his top priority.
“I was in their shoes, I understand the struggle. I understand the difficulties of paying the costs for travel if you don’t have the backing of a strong federation, which 90% or even more of the players around the world don’t have, and not having the budget to pay for coaches and physiotherapists,” Novak Djokovic said.
“Coming from Serbia, I didn’t have any of that. And now I have influence, I have power, and I want to fight for better conditions. We talk so much about how much money the US Open winners make but we are not talking about how many players, both men and women, singles, doubles, all together, professionals live from this sport,” Djokovic told ESPN
Novak Djokovic is presently at the ATP Finals in Turin, just days after the Serbian star won his 40th ATP Masters 1000 in Paris. He will begin his adventure for a seventh ATP Finals title on Sunday.
