Nick Kyrgios: Player union’s legal action against tennis tours a special moment
By Eleanor Crooks, PA Tennis Correspondent
Nick Kyrgios described the Professional Tennis Players Association’s legal action against the sport’s governing bodies as a “special moment”.
The outspoken Australian is one of 12 current and former players named as plaintiffs in the US lawsuit along with the organisation set up by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil four years ago.
Djokovic’s name is not listed but his presence as a driving force behind the PTPA lends weight to this action against the ATP, WTA, International Tennis Federation and International Tennis Integrity Agency, which threatens to cause a civil war within the sport.
Among the PTPA’s complaints are the suppression of competition between tournaments, which it says reduces prize money, a draconian ranking points system, an unsustainable schedule and financial exploitation of players.
It also accused the governing bodies of disregarding player welfare by forcing athletes to compete late at night and in extreme heat, and branded anti-doping practices an invasion of privacy.
Kyrgios believes change is overdue, telling Sky Sports: “I felt like people knew that something was going on behind the scenes for a long time.
“Myself, Pospisil, Djokovic, we all wanted to do something like this for the future of tennis. I know myself and many other players aren’t happy with the structures and everything that’s going on in tennis at the moment. This will be a special moment in tennis for sure. Things needed to change.
“The PTPA’s first goal was to get the players to be heard. I feel like we don’t get heard. The ATP just has so much power and they don’t have to show anything to anyone.
“Now this is where things like this will have to change, they’ll have to show things and how things operate and that’s when people will really realise it hasn’t really been done correctly over the last however many years.”
The ATP and WTA both responded strongly to the PTPA’s announcement and vowed to “vigorously defend” themselves.
The ATP accused the PTPA of choosing “division and distraction through misinformation over progress”, while the WTA called the legal action “regrettable and misguided”.