How The Professional Tennis Players Association Lawsuit Against The ATP And WTA Tours Affects Tennis Fans

On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) filed a class action lawsuit against the ATP, WTA, and ITF (International Tennis Federation) tours as well as the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).

Vasek Pospisil and Novak Djokovic co-founded the PTPA in 2019. It is an association of male and female professional tennis players.

Djokovic is not named in the lawsuit.  Players directly named in the lawsuit include Nick Kyrgios, Reilly Opelka, Tennys Sandgren, Sorana Cirstea, and Nicole Melichar-Martinez.

The lawsuit is a 163-page document that is so voluminous that it has a table of contents.

The professional tennis system is unfair, nontransparent, and rigged against the players.

The PTPA and players’ legal challenges will hold the tennis establishment accountable to ensure real, long-lasting improvements are made.

Details: https://t.co/DUXNqPOgLr pic.twitter.com/FzTVbMZneA

— Professional Tennis Players Association (@ptpaplayers) March 18, 2025

Tennis fans may not embrace the entirety of the lawsuit since some elements of it impact workplace conditions and earning opportunities for players, but two items stand out for fans.

What Tennis Fans Care About

• Frequency of tournaments

The lawsuit discusses how the ATP and WTA Tours mandate player participation in tournaments.  For years, players have complained about the 11-month tennis schedule and the dizzying array of 1000-level and 500-level tournaments they are required to compete in along with Grand Slams and nonmandatory but important Olympic events every four years and Davis Cup (ATP) and Billie Jean King Cup (WTA) team events each year.

Players often enter these events fatigued or injured.  The tennis tours roll on at a tiresome pace with intense travel, training, and other physical and mental burdens for the players with limited downtime.  Mandatory events are often back-to-back like the 1000-level Sunshine Double tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami this month.  Fans enjoy these events but are frequently disappointed when players are forced to withdraw or retire from them because of illnesses and injuries they have no time to recuperate from.

• Drug testing due process

Tennis players are subject to relentless and required drug testing.  In recent years, there have been many issues with the handling of those failed tests.  Simona Halep, Iga Swiatek, and Jannik Sinner are the most recent examples.  Players are confused by the protocols, delays, governing agencies, and steps in the process because there appears to be no uniformity in the due process.  If players do not understand the process, fans definitely do not, and it hinders their ability to watch top players in prominent tournaments as is the case with Jannik Sinner‘s current suspension.

Conclusion

It is unclear how or what resolution will come from this.  The PTPA says it has top players behind it, but most of those named are not well-known or highly ranked stars of the sport.

As mentioned above, the biggest name involved is Novak Djokovic because of his leadership at PTPA, but he is not mentioned by name in the lawsuit. Depending on who you ask Novak Djokovic is either the heroic figure aka the Billie Jean King of his generation trying to get needed reform, or he is out of his element.

The players want better work conditions, and the fans want a better product.  Both are entitled to these things.  The PTPA said it has been talking about these issues with the parties involved for years, but it took this step because the discussions were going nowhere.