Tennis’s backstage turmoil is continuing in New York, with hardliners from the ATP player council gathering signatures on a petition designed to boost prize money on the men’s tour. Around 70 to 100 players are believed to have signed up, although many of the biggest names have declined.
Vasek Pospisil and Jurgen Melzer are among the players understood to be promoting the idea, which requests that all tournaments – both grand slams and ATP events – introduce a profit-sharing model. In an article published in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail at the start of this month, Pospisil suggested that the slams are only returning around 14 per cent of their profits to the players, whereas American franchises such as the NBA pay almost 50 per cent back.
The legal firm Norton Rose Fulbright has been recruited to back up the process, and insiders say that the lawyers would take 10 per cent of any increase in prize money that results from the petition. But some are questioning whether the politicking should be going on at such a major event, when most players are focused on their games. Thus far, the slams have shown no interest in scheduling a meeting with NRF.
At an open meeting of the players on Friday night, Britain's Dan Evans is understood to have questioned whether the idea of boycotting tournaments is either realistic or sensible. According to those who attended the meeting, Evans challenged Novak Djokovic – the world No 1 and president of the player council, who is strongly aligned with Pospisil – by asking him whether he was planning to stand down from grand-slam events in the case that they refused to follow the players’ requests.
The player council was recently augmented by the return of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, but they have not backed the Pospisil plan.
