"How come nobody's asking the right question" - Novak Djokovic-led PTPA's Executive Director gives thoughts on why players enter exhibition events

Ahmad Nassar, the Executive Director of Novak Djokovic's Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), recently expressed his views on the phenomenon of top pros competing at exhibition tournaments. He is of the opinion that players often enter these events because they receive a much more generous share of the revenue in the former compared to tour-level events.

The conversation surrounding exhibition tournaments and their place in the ATP Tour calendar reached a fever pitch earlier this year when Carlos Alcaraz spoke out against the duration and structure of the annual season. The Spaniard went as far as to suggest that the calendar was "so tight", and that its congested nature was bound to "kill the players".

However, Alcaraz was subsequently criticized by the tennis universe for entering multiple exhibition events despite his complaints about the tour calendar, which included the recently concluded Six Kings Slam in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Novak Djokovic-led PTPA Executive Director Ahmad Nassar gave a nuanced take on the above topic while speaking to Ubitennis.

Nassar asserted that players were inclined towards putting exhibition tournaments in their schedules as they paid well relative to tour-level events. He also maintained that top pros had considerable value before adding that they must angle for higher prize money, which is an issue that is a primary reason behind the inception of Djokovic's PTPA.

"The reason players play exhibitions has nothing to do with the calendar. It has everything to do with the fact that they aren’t compensated properly," Ahmad Nassar told Ubitennis. "And because they aren’t compensated properly, how come nobody’s asking the right question? Which is how do these exhibitions exist?

"They’re not charities. How do they exist and pay the players this much money? The reality is the players have that much value. That’s why. They sell tickets and people show up, and people care about seeing the players who play in the exhibition, which reinforces a fact we’ve (the PTPA) been saying for years now, which is that the players are vastly under-compensated in the current Tour slam structure," he added.

---

Novak Djokovic-led PTPA Executive Director defends top players: "They’re not happy about playing exhibitions"

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz greet each other at ATP Finals 2023

Ahmad Nassar also called out tennis fans for criticizing the top players for participating in exhibition tournaments. He insisted that players themselves must not be happy about entering them, as they are vying for titles regularly on the pro tour.

"So what people do is they use the misdirection to say, 'Oh, see, they complain about the calendar, but they’re playing exhibitions'. Well, they’re playing exhibitions to solve a different problem, and they’re not happy about playing exhibitions," Nassar said.

Carlos Alcaraz, meanwhile, had claimed in a similar vein last month that the logistics of playing tour-level and exhibition tournaments are independent of each other.

"I have seen many people talking about my calendar because I have done many exhibitions, but we need to separate the calendar and the exhibitions, they are different things," the Spaniard said.

Earlier this month, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic joined Rafael Nadal, Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev and Holger Rune at the Six Kings Slam. While Alcaraz finished runner-up to Sinner, Djokovic ended in the third place at the three-day Riyadh event. Both players received $1.5 million in prize money for their performance.