Rafael Nadal yet to speak to Novak Djokovic about PTPA, but insists ‘we don’t need another organisation’

ATP Tour

Shahida Jacobs
November 17, 2020

He is yet to talk to Novak Djokovic about the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), but Rafael Nadal is sticking to his guns over the newly formed organisation as he believes tennis should only have one body representing players.

World No 1 Djokovic, Canada’s Vasek Pospisil and American John Isner announced on the eve of the 2020 US Open that they had resigned from their roles on the ATP Player Council to form the PTPA.

ATP chaos as Novak Djokovic, Vasek Pospisil, John Isner announce breakaway players association

They insisted the PTPA would co-exist with the player council adding that “this is not a union. This is player association”.

However, elder statesmen Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray all made it clear that they wouldn’t join the new association as they felt “it is time for unity, not for separation”.

Speaking after his ATP Finals win over Andrey Rublev, Nadal confirmed he hasn’t talked to Djokovic about the PTPA, but reiterated his stance on the breakaway group.

“No, I didn’t speak to him about this. I practiced with him the other day, but no, no, didn’t talk about this situation,” he said.

“They know my opinion, but I tell you one thing, not because they are creating this organisation they are trying to help more the rest of the players than us [ATP Player Council].

“We are in the situation that we are today is because not me and Roger but Novak included and Andy and the top players went to the tour and asked for what the other players we really think they deserved.

“So if we compare the tour today to five, six, seven, eight years ago, the improvement in terms of the income that the lower-ranked players have are significantly higher.

“And that does not mean that we [ATP Player Council] are not trying to keep helping and to keep promoting the idea that if more players are able to survive from our sport, our sport gonna be bigger, of course yes, and of course we are talking about what we can do to try to make that happen, but we believe that we don’t need to create another organisation to make that happen.

“That’s all. But the idea is not different; the approach is completely different.”

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Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal