Former world No. 1 Stan Smith tells CNN Sports it is “unfortunate” that tennis seems to be experiencing “a lot of the same issues we had back 50 years ago.”
His comments come after the Professional Tennis Players’ Association (PTPA), the tennis players’ association co-founded by Novak Djokovic, filed multiple lawsuits around the world against the sport’s tours and governing bodies.
The suits allege the “monopolization” of men’s and women’s tennis and the “disregard” of player interests, accusing the governing organizations of operating “as a cartel.”
The ATP and WTA both disagreed with the lawsuit and said in statements they would defend their positions “vigorously.”
“It’s unfortunate that you have a group of players that are in the Players’ Association, not only ATP but the WTA,” Smith tells CNN. “The ITF has always been the elephant that has been so powerful but trying to control the game.
“So I understand that part, but it’s really unfortunate to see the players not able to work it out. Some of the things they’re asking for have been things that have been improved dramatically, over the conditions of play, certainly the prize money has grown.
“There’s concern about the amount of prize money at the major tournaments and that, I think, could be negotiated to a certain extent.
“Obviously the ITF, the grand slam events are the ones that have the most money,” Smith adds, “and the players are important to those events, and those events are important to the players. So I hope there’s a compromise there in this whole situation.”
Last week, French sports outlet L’Équipe reported that the top-20-ranked male and female players cosigned a letter to organizers of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open requesting a “substantial increase” in prize money.
Qinweng Zheng, the women’s singles gold medalist at last year’s Paris Olympics, called the letter a “really positive” step for the sport.
Smith, who became an icon in both the tennis and fashion world after having an Adidas sneaker named after him, certainly knows a thing or two about player power.
In 1968, star tennis players began leaving what was then an amateur sport and defecting to the professional circuit, which meant they would no longer be eligible to compete in the amateur-only grand slams.
However, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) eventually relented after much turmoil and the Open Era was born.
Five years later, Smith arrived at Wimbledon as the defending champion after winning the title in 1972. It was the pinnacle of his career.
Ahead of the tournament in ‘73, the Yugoslav Tennis Association was unhappy with its star player, Niki Pilić, after he opted to play in the professional World Championship of Tennis doubles final rather than represent his country in the Davis Cup.
Pilić was suspended for nine months by his country’s tennis association, which then phoned Wimbledon organizers and requested he be banned from competing – a request that was granted.
In protest, the players formed the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and 13 of the 16 seeds – including defending champion Smith – withdrew in support of Pilić.
However, regarding the recent events in tennis, Smith questions how unifying this lawsuit will be, given many of the world’s top players were not involved – or even aware of it, in the case of world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic, who wasn’t named in the suit despite co-founding the PTPA, admitted that he agrees and disagrees with parts of the legal action. The Serb said he has previously been “very active in tennis politics” but didn’t sign because he “want(s) other players to step up.”
“I think a lot of this could be things that could be worked through, and some of the players like Carlos Alcaraz didn’t know about it,” says Smith, who has recently written the book “Winning Trust” with former professional tennis player Gary Niebur.
“So it certainly doesn’t represent all the players. At Wimbledon, we had almost all the top players boycotting.
“It was a bond of the ATP at that particular moment. So I think it’s unfortunate that they aren’t able to work through these issues that are out there and a lot of it revolves around schedule. It’s always been schedule. It’s always been prize money.
“It’s always been prize money, distribution, allocation. And it’s funny, because it’s a lot of the same issues we had back 50 years ago.
“I know that Djokovic is involved. It’s very ironic that he’d be involved in this whole thing, but not be part of the suit. That doesn’t make sense to me. There are other players that are involved, but I don’t know if there’s a unity of the players behind this whole thing, so it’s unfortunate.”
Source: edition.cnn.com