The Professional Tennis Players Association which was introduced in 2020 is the brainchild of the world number 1 Novak Djokovic. The association helps in the empowerment of players around tennis and voices their concerns on various platforms. Recently the executive director of PTPA, Ahmad Nassar was interviewed on different aspects revolving around the organization as well as tennis.
Of course, he shared how flawed the current structuring around tennis is and compared it to different sports as well. But along with that he also shared how it can be made better so that players become the people in power instead of the governing authorities to make things fairer and better.
Novak Djokovic’s PTPA executive director talks about the flawed tennis structure
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During his interview he was asked what his view is about the current ATP and WTA model or if he finds it outdated and what scope of improvement there is to work upon. He started by sharing about how the current model does not work at all. And also, how this is true for other sports like golf as well: “Tennis players have been left behind over the last 30 years. The players lost control of the structure. The tours should be seen like leagues. They make the rules. They make the schedule. They do all the things that event planners and governing bodies do.”
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Further he added, “And then you have the players, represented collectively by one body—a player’s association that negotiates on all the things on their behalf: The schedule when it comes to, say, late-night matches. Health and benefits. Prize money. The ball tournaments use and all that stuff. That’s how it works in other sports. Once the tennis players make their discontent known, people do take notice. But who is pushing to make that happen? That would fall to the PTPA.”
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He even shared that this model has already been adopted by other sports like football and basketball and that is what tennis should do as well. Not just that, he also shared how they are trying to unite the issues of tennis players and represent them as one to make a difference.
Nassar also talked about bringing problems to the surface for players
When asked about the WTA Finals’ lack of preparation, and how PTPA played a role, Nassar mentioned how the players are trying to raise issues across the various organizations but there is no united front. And according to him that doesn’t make sense across schedule, travel, and geography. This does not bring about any input.
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However, he shared that if players join together as a union under PTPA then that gets more attention from people and the right authorities. He shared that the main job of the PTPA is to look at problems from the perspective of the players at all times and get them resolved as much as they can.
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