Four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz said he does not support a class-action lawsuit brought against tennis' governing bodies by the players' association co-founded by Novak Djokovic.
The Professional Tennis Players' Association, which said it had the backing of more than 250 athletes, sued in New York on Tuesday and also took action in Brussels and London, calling the organisations in charge of the sport — the women's (WTA) and men's (ATP) tours, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the agency that oversees anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts (ITIA) — a "cartel."
“There are some things that I agree [with]. There are some other things that I [don’t] agree with,” Alcaraz said about the antitrust case when asked about it at a pre-tournament news conference for the Miami Open, where he is seeded second. “But the main thing here is that I am not supporting that. So that’s it.”
The 21-year-old Spaniard said he did not know in advance that the PTPA had filed suit despite being named in the 150-page-plus filing.
“Honestly, it was surprising for me, because nobody told me about it,” Alcaraz said. “So I just saw it on social media.”
On page 71, in a section about onerous scheduling in professional tennis, major title winners Alcaraz, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek are cited, including this passage: “Carlos Alcaraz criticized the Tours’ schedule, saying the Governing Body Defendants ‘are going to kill us in some way.’”
That came from something Alcaraz said after a match he played at the Laver Cup last September, according to a transcript of his news conference there.
“A lot of players [want] to play more – or even more. A lot of players feel like, OK, it is a good calendar. And a lot of players [say] that it’s really tight and a lot of tournaments during the whole year,” he said.
“I’m the kind of player who [thinks] there is a lot of tournaments during the year, mandatory tournaments, and probably during the next few years, gonna be even more tournaments, more mandatory tournaments. So, I mean, probably they are going to kill us in some way.”
The transcript indicates he was smiling at the end of that passage.
Formally founded by Djokovic and Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in 2021, the PTPA, which is backed by billionaire Bill Ackman, cites its mission as supporting and safeguarding professional tennis players.
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, while the PTPA branded anti-doping practices an invasion of privacy.