The 2020 U.S. Open is currently underway but the major news coming out of the professional tennis world is the creation of the first player’s only tennis association created by Novak Djokovic and co-organizer Vasek Pospisil.
The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) formed to represent the interests of men’s singles players ranked in the top 500 and men’s doubles players ranked in the top 200. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the current organizing body for men’s tennis professionals and with the creation of the PTPA it creates a division among the players. The PTPA was created to advocate for player’s needs and concerns.
While many men’s professionals have joined, several top players are against the PTPA. Tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are firmly against it, since it divides the players. Notably, there aren’t any professional women tennis players in PTPA. The PTPA claims to want an active and equal involvement for women’s players although they haven’t been invited to join.
Women have been fighting for equal pay in tennis for years and finally got recognition with equal pay for Grand Slam Tournaments, but there is still disparity among other tournaments.
The PTPA is a good try for player concerns, but if all players aren’t included then it’s not a good look for professional tennis. The PTPA and ATP seem to be on opposite sides in a time where staying united is so important. There’s still uncertainty about the future, but at this time the PTPA will need to make some changes for it to work out how they want.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter @arminmesinovic.