MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — 4-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz was unaware that there could be a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. federal courtroom towards a few of the teams that run tennis and made clear Wednesday that he doesn’t again the hassle by the gamers’ affiliation co-founded by Novak Djokovic.
“There are some issues that I agree (with). There are another issues that I (do not) agree with,” Alcaraz mentioned in regards to the antitrust case when requested about it at a pre-tournament information convention for the Miami Open, the place he’s seeded second. “However the principle factor right here is that I’m not supporting that. In order that’s it.”
The Skilled Tennis Gamers’ Affiliation, which mentioned it had the backing of greater than 250 athletes, sued in New York on Tuesday and in addition took motion in Brussels and London, calling the organizations in control of the game – the ladies’s (WTA) and males’s (ATP) excursions, the Worldwide Tennis Federation (ITF) and the company that oversees anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts (ITIA) – a ” cartel.”
“Actually, it was stunning for me, as a result of no person advised me (something) about it,” Alcaraz mentioned. “So I simply noticed it on social media.”
He, like another gamers, was quoted within the 150-pages-plus submitting — one thing else that caught the 21-year-old Spaniard off-guard.
On web page 71, in a bit about onerous scheduling in skilled tennis, main title winners Alcaraz, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek are cited, together with this passage: “Carlos Alcaraz criticized the Excursions’ schedule, saying the Governing Physique Defendants ‘are going to kill (gamers) not directly.'”
That got here from one thing Alcaraz mentioned after a match he performed on the Laver Cup occasion final September, based on a transcript of his information convention there.
“A variety of gamers (need) to play extra — or much more. A variety of gamers really feel like, OK, it’s a good calendar. And a number of gamers (say) that it is actually tight and a number of tournaments throughout the entire 12 months,” he mentioned. “I am the form of participant who (thinks) there may be a number of tournaments in the course of the 12 months, obligatory tournaments, and possibly in the course of the subsequent few years, gonna be much more tournaments, extra obligatory tournaments. So, I imply, most likely they’ll kill us not directly.”
The transcript signifies he was smiling on the finish of that passage.
The PTPA go well with ranges a collection of criticisms towards the governing our bodies in tennis, akin to limiting the prize cash every event can provide, stopping competitors from rival excursions or occasions, a rankings system that restricts which occasions athletes are allowed to enter, and a “heavy-handed method” by the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company that the lawsuit termed “arbitrary and selective.”