Novak Djokovic has a new title in tennis: player advocate
Novak Djokovic presented his case for a players-only union and increased payouts for lower ranked tournament participants across the board.
Last September, Novak Djokovic became president of the Associated Tennis Professionals (ATP) and is making the most of his new role.
The ATP and Australian Open (AO) officials held a joint meeting with the players to unveil their plans to increase the prize pot from the current $55 million to $100 million over the next few years. Sounds like a lot, right? Not as much compared to other sports. On the whole, tennis awards only seven percent of its Grand Slam income to the players.
Djokovic asked the ATP officials to leave the meeting so he could discuss this issue directly with the players, bringing a lawyer along to help explain the steps to forming a union if that was decided. The rest of the Big Four were also present, meaning Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray, who was still in Australia undergoing rehab after hip surgery.
It’s an interesting move for the Serb — who easily won his first round on Monday against Donald Young, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. The 12-time Grand Slam champ became the first tennis player to break the $100 million prize mark. Although some put a “greedy” spin on his initiative, the motivation behind it seems to be more about advocacy for the lower ranked players, many of whom can barely afford to cover their travel expenses, even if they make around $300,000. Playing competitive tennis in the big tournaments if you’re ranked in the Top 200 or 300 can be prohibitively expensive when you factor in coaches, travel, and equipment. Djokovic was clear about advocating for these players in his request for the private meeting.
It’s been said that Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev are generally supportive of the effort, while Rafael Nadal deflected the subject in a press conference afterward and Roger Federer is happy with how things are. (Why wouldn’t he be? He surpassed Djokovic’s tally last year.) Andy Roddick and Judy Murray (Andy’s mom) also tweeted their support.
“I know that you guys are trying to take this forward several steps,” said Djokovic after his first round match. “Obviously you’re talking about union, you’re talking about boycott, you’re talking about radical decisions to make … so we can get financial compensations the way we deserve it. But there was no talks about that.”
Part of Djokovic’s presentation referenced the disparity between tennis and other sports that pay out much more of their income, for example, the NBA, NFL, and golf — all much higher than tennis. (The NBA pays out at 50 percent, compared to tennis’ seven.) Tennis attendance has also increased, so asking for more makes sense on this front too.
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“I’m part of the council, but I don’t sit on these negotiation tables,” Djokovic added. “I’m just glad that I’m part of it, that I can contribute to a better sport today, and the future.”
If Djokovic’s effort leads to more meetings around payout parity and compensating lower ranked players in the 150-200 range (or even lower), this is an excellent direction for tennis that hopefully more players will get behind.