Novak Djokovic: "The system is structured in a way to not allow players to have a decision-making role"

Professional Tennis Players Association's president Novak Djokovic has once again spoken against the lack of opportunity for players to make decisions in the current ATP and WTA structure in place.

Djokovic founded the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) in 2019 in collaboration with Canadian tennis player Vasek Pospisil. The duo joined forces to highlight and tackle the injustices their colleagues face on tour.

The likes of Paula Badosa, Hubert Hurkacz, and Ons Jabeur are among the top players who have so far joined the PTPA in its quest to prioritize the players' interests.

Djokovic is regularly involved in the process of addressing and convincing his fellow players to join the PTPA. Most recently he talked about the degree to which athletes are denied the turn to put forward their interests.

"Players get the shorter end of the stick 90 plus percent of the time. Why? Just because the system is structured and founded in such a way that doesn’t allow players to, you know, actually have a decision-making role," the Serb said.

The 36-year-old affirmed that having served as president of the ATP council for more than half a dozen years, he was well aware of the shortcomings in the system.

"The fact that I mean both in ATP and WTA governance, you have 50 percent of ATP and WTA belongs to players and 50 percent to tournaments. And in most of the cases, you’re always going to have a conflict of interest," he spoke.

"If you actually go to the very structure and the system that is in place, I was part of the council and president of the council for six or seven years, so I understand how things work," he explained.

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"You have to have supermajority and most the time that's not going to happen because the two sides have different interests" - Novak Djokovic

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Novak Djokovic justified the necessity of the presence of an organization, such as the PTPA, that underlines a player's well-being at all times.

Djokovic pointed out that because there's an equal distribution of power between the authorities representing the players and the tournaments, bringing about a drastic change is next to impossible.

"We do have our player board representatives that are three, you know, then you three from the tournament side and you have the CEO or the president that breaks the even vote," he said.

"But in many of the cases when you want to make a significant difference, you have to have a supermajority and most of the time that’s not going to happen because the two sides have just different interests," the 24-time Grand Slam champion mentioned.

He continued:

"So, that is why PTPA needs to exist and needs to be there for players because it’s [about] representing and having 100 percent of the players’ interest at its core."

Djokovic is next scheduled to compete at the Paris Masters.