The professional tennis tour and two other defendants jointly filed a motion in federal court in New York to dismiss the class action antitrust lawsuit filed by the Association of Professional Tennis Players, a group co-founded by Novak Djokovic.
“PTPA is not the right plaintiff in this case. The PTPA lacks relevant status and antitrust laws, and the existence of PTPA in this case is not only redundant, but also an inappropriate attempt to circumvent class action requirements.” “PTPA should be dismissed as plaintiff.”
PTPA sued the WTA Women’s Tour, ATP Men’s Tour, International Tennis Federation (ITF), and International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).
Players are seeking a large portion of their revenue and have raised various other complaints about the tennis structure, including prize limits and lack of competition from rival tours and tournaments.
PTPA was founded several years ago by 24-time Grand Slam champions Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil.
The group has repeatedly revealed that it is not a full-fledged union, has no members and has not collected membership fees. All of these are pointed out to be one of Tuesday’s moves as a reason why PTPA should not be allowed to become plaintiffs in the case.
The PTPA inappropriately confuses “membership” with the population of top players that the PTPA allegedly claims, some of which are already publicly opposed to the advocacy of PTPA, “filing reads.”
The allegations came from all four defendants.
Another move filed solely by the WTA, claims that male plaintiffs — 2022 Wimbledon runners-up Nick Kyrgios, Riley Opelka and Tenny Sandglen should not sue women’s tour — are alleging that female plaintiffs.
According to the filing, each WTA player agrees to follow the tour rulebook. “It widely states that “disputes” will be filed “only to the American Arbitration Association”… regarding the lawsuit of a single arbitrator.”
“I’m not surprised by their actions,” PTPA said in a statement to the Associated Press. “We investigated all the issues in detail before submitting the case, and we look forward to responding to them in time and making a decision to a judge.”