The group of players founded by Novak Djokovic presents an antimonopoly demand against tennis organizers

Miami Gardens (Florida), March 19 (AP) by calling the groups in charge of the professional tennis “a poster”, the Association of Players co -founded by Novak Djokovic filed an antimonopoly demand against the tours of women and men, the International Tennis Federation and the Sport Integrity Agency in the Federal Court in New York.

The demand of the Association of Professional Tennis Players says that organizations that direct the sport have “complete control over the sale and working conditions of the players” and their configuration constitutes “violations of textbooks of the state and federal law” that “immunize the professional tennis of the common market forces and denies the professional players of tennis and other participants of the industry their right to fair competition.”

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and wants players to get access to more profits, arguing that the governing bodies that supervise the four Grand Slam tournaments: Wimbledon, the United States Open, the open of France and the Australian Open, and other professional events “limit the prize of the awards and limit the ability of the players to earn money out of the court.”

In addition to the case in the United States District Court, the PTPA made presentations before the European Commission in Brussels and the Competitive Market Authority in London.

“There is a complete and absolute lack of competence that exists in professional tennis, and we believe that when presenting these actions, we will finally inject the type of competition that will be fair for players, for fans and actually for people (who) operate the system,” said Jim Quinn, a lawyer who works with the PTPA.

“It will require restructuring,” said Quinn.

The WTA Tour and the ATP Tour issued separate statements on Tuesday saying that they would defend themselves “vigorously.”

The WTA said that “it has committed to an increase of $ 400 million in the compensation of the players” in recent years and labeled PTPA’s action as a “legal case without foundation” that is “unfortunate and wrong.” The ATP promoted an “important increase in players compensation” that created a “$ 70 million leap in the last five years”, and described the PTPA case “completely without merit.”

“The PTPA has constantly chosen division and distraction through erroneous information about progress,” said the ATP statement. “Five years after its beginning in 2020, the PTPA has struggled to establish a significant role in tennis, making its decision to follow legal actions at this non -surprising situation.”

The International Tennis Integrity Agency, which investigates and judges doping and corruption, said it pointed out the action of the PTPA but did not offer any direct reaction to the case itself.

A spokesman said the ITF “will take the appropriate time to consider our answer.”

The PTPA was founded by the 24 times champion of Grand Slam Djokovic and Vasek PostpiSil in August 2020, with the aim of offering representation for players who are independent contractors in a large sport largely individual. One of the clarified objectives on the road was to become a kind of full union that negotiates collective bargaining agreements such as those that exist in team sports.

“Beyond the economy, we see … the well -being of the player does not take into account in everything, from the schedule of the tour to the anti -competitive practices, until the abuse of our rights around the name, the image, the image,” said Postpysil.

It is one of the players that appear as a plaintiff; Djokovic is not. The players whose names are attached to the US demand include the 2022 Wimbledon Nick Kyrgios, Sorana Circsea, Varvara Gracheva, Reilly Opelka, Tennys Sandgren and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.

The executive director of PTPA, Ahmad Nassar, said Djokovic is “certainly very involved, very speed. He is still a acting member of our Executive Committee in the PTPA … This is much more than a player.”

The PTPA said it met with more than 250 players, women and men, and most of the 20 best in the WTA and ATP ranking, before going to court.

“We have seen the Grand Slams try to change some things without success. We have seen that tours themselves try to change things without success. We have seen that external money tries to enter and change things without success. Therefore, we really believe that this is the only way forward, and we do not do this lightly, whatever it is,” said Nassar. “But we believe it was necessary, because players really demand to be heard, have their problems seriously, address these structural problems that affect tennis and really drown it as an international sport, and create a system that provides balance, equality and equity for really the entire tennis business.” (AP) UNG