A players' union and a group of tennis professionals are accusing the ATP, WTA and ITF as well as the organization they founded, the ITIA, of "anti-competitive and unlawful governance of the sport of professional tennis." They accuse it of having formed a cartel to keep potential competitors out of the market and to keep professional tennis players' share of the profits low.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is responsible for the rules of the sport and organizes some international competitions such as the four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, US Open, Wimbledon), the Davis Cup and the tennis competitions of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The ATP organizes most of the other professional tournaments for the men, the WTA for the women.

The three associations set up the International Tennis Integrity Agency in 2021 to guarantee clean tennis. The ITIA deals with doping offenses and cases of corruption in tennis.

The lawsuits, which were filed in New York, London and Brussels, state that in tennis only 18% of revenue goes to the players. They compare this to the NFL and the PGA Tour, where the athletes receive around 50%, and the English Premier League, where they get a 61% share.

At 11 months, the tennis season is longer than those in most other professional sports and "poses dangers to player health and safety," according to the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit was initiated by the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), which was founded in 2020. Ten active and two retired professionals are also named as plaintiffs in the United States, none of whom were or are among the top stars in the industry.

The best-known among them is Australian Nick Kyrgios, who has won seven ATP tournaments and was No. 13 in the world rankings in 2016. The highest-ranked professional in the current rankings is Russian-born Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva, the world No. 65.

The PTPA was founded by Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic and Canadian mainly doubles player Vasek Pospisil. Lawyer Ahmad Nassar has been at the helm of the PTPA as Managing Director since August 2022. Djokovic and Pospisil are members of the Executive Committee, which consists of four male and four female players. One of them is Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who was the first North African and Arab woman to reach the final at Wimbledon in 2022.

The PTBA is demanding that players be allowed to "share fairly in the economic activity and wealth of tennis, which players have helped generate, underpinned by fair and just pay and working conditions."

Although the organization describes itself as the "leading advocate for professional tennis players worldwide," the PTPA does not provide exact information how many members is has.

The WTA and the ATP were founded in the 1970s to represent the interests of professional players: the WTA by then-star women's player Billie Jean King, the ATP by American players Jack Kramer and Donald Dell as well as the South African Cliff Drysgale.

The PTPA claims that the lawsuit is "backed overwhelmingly by the top 250+ men's and women's players including a majority of the Top 20 players." However, it provides no evidence of this.

Cautious to negative.

"There are some things I agree with and others I disagree with," said men's world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. "But the important thing is that I don't support it."

Alexander Zverev expressed a similar view. There are some "valuable points," said the men's No. 2. "But I think the pros and the tour should unite and not argue."

Even PTPA co-founder Djokovic admitted that he found "some of the wording in the accusation very harsh."

German tennis legend Boris Becker has taken a critical view.

"If the top-players would support this in unison, okay," said the former Wimbledon winner. "If I don't have one, then I can't take the matter that seriously."

They firmly reject all the allegations made in the lawsuit. The ATP sees the PTPA's actions as something of a last-ditch attempt to break free.

"Five years after it was founded in 2020, the PTPA is struggling to establish a significant role in tennis, so its decision to take legal action at this time is not surprising," it said

This is not yet clear, but it's not the primary purpose of the lawsuit in the first place. PTPA boss Ahmad Nassar explained in an interview with the US internet portal "Bounces" that it was not about forcing a lawsuit.

"We don't want to litigate it to the end… we want to force everybody to get into a room and figure this out."

Nassar noted that he isn't big on social media slogans, but he really likes the one they've come up with: "'Game, Set, Reform."' We're trying to reform tennis. We're trying to elevate it."

This article was originally published in German.