From Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula to Zheng Qinwen: Insider reveals WTA stars denying association with Novak Djokovic-led PTPA's lawsuit
Ahead of the 2025 Miami Open, the PTPA (Professional Tennis Players' Association) took the tennis world by storm after launching a lawsuit against the existing tennis organizations across both the men's and women's tennis tours. The PTPA accused the tennis establishment of corruption and practices that hampered player safety.
The lawsuit was met with a mixed response; while some players agreed to certain points brought forward by the PTPA, the majority consensus was that this legal action would cause further friction between the sport's governing bodies. Both the WTA and ATP responded with harsh critiques of the lawsuit in their respective press releases.
Amidst the controversy, tennis insider Ben Rothenberg revealed his initial conversations with some of the WTA players at the Charleston Open, where the tennis stars revealed if they were associated with the lawsuit in any form. As per Rothenberg's reports, prominent stars such as Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula, Zheng Qinwen, Amanda Ansimova, and Belinda Bencic have all denied any association with the lawsuit.
Rothenberg pointed out that these denials do not augur well for the PTPA's lawsuit, as players' reactions were not encouraging in Miami. Notably, Carlos Alcaraz, one of the biggest names in the sport, candidly confessed that he agreed with certain points raised by the lawsuit but did not support the legal action as a whole.
"Some wording was quite strong"- Novak Djokovic on the PTPA lawsuit
Being the co-founder of the PTPA, Novak Djokovic's response regarding the PTPA lawsuit held significance. When the Serb broke his silence on the matter, he did not give his unanimous support. Djokovic claimed he was in favor of bringing changes to improve the sport but did not agree with the whole content of the 150-page document.
"I really hope that all the governing bodies, including PTPA, will come together and solve these issues. This is a classic lawsuit, so lawyers to lawyers, type of situation. So to be quite frank with you, there are things that I agree with in the lawsuit, and then there are also things that I don’t agree with," said Djokovic
The former World No. 1 cited that the language used in the legal action was a bit too severe for his liking, but he felt that the involved lawyers would be aware of using the appropriate language.
"And I found that maybe some wording was quite strong in there, but I guess the legal team knows what they are doing and what kind of terminology they’re supposed to use in order to get the right effect," Novak Djokovic added.
The lawsuit has also been criticised by other prominent players, such as former World No. 1 Andy Roddick, and even Novak Djokovic's current coach, Andy Murray, publicly mocked the legal action.