4-time grand slam champion Carlos Alcaraz was unaware that there could be a class-action lawsuit filed in US federal court docket towards a few of the teams that run tennis and confirmed 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 stated about 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.”
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The Skilled Tennis Gamers’ Affiliation, which stated it had the backing of greater than 250 athletes, sued in New York on Wednesday (Australian time) and likewise took motion in Brussels and London, calling the organisations 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”.
“Truthfully, it was stunning for me, as a result of no person advised me (something) about it,” Alcaraz stated. “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.
Stan Sport is the house of grand slam tennis and the place to observe each match of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, Roland-Garros and US Open
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 criticised the Excursions’ schedule, saying the Governing Physique Defendants ‘are going to kill (gamers) in a roundabout way.'”
That got here from one thing Alcaraz stated after a match he performed on the Laver Cup occasion final September, in accordance with a transcript of his information convention there.
Carlos Alcaraz says he will not be a part of the authorized motion. Getty
“Lots of gamers (need) to play extra — or much more. Lots of gamers really feel like, OK, it’s a good calendar. And quite a lot of gamers (say) that it is actually tight and quite a lot of tournaments throughout the entire yr,” he stated in 2024.
“I am the sort of participant who (thinks) there’s quite a lot of tournaments throughout the yr, necessary tournaments, and possibly throughout the subsequent few years, gonna be much more tournaments, extra necessary tournaments. So, I imply, in all probability they’re going to kill us in a roundabout way.”
The transcript signifies he was smiling on the finish of that passage.
“I noticed that there have been some statements that they put one thing that I stated in press convention, which I did not know. I do not assist that letter, that, I do not assist that, as a result of, as I stated, I did not know something about it,” he added.
The PTPA go well with ranges a collection of criticisms towards the governing our bodies in tennis, resembling limiting the prize cash every event can supply, stopping competitors from rival excursions or occasions, a rankings system that restricts which occasions athletes are allowed to enter, and a “heavy-handed strategy” by the Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company that the lawsuit termed “arbitrary and selective.”
