Players & PTPA sue ATP, WTA - why, and what now?
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.6 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Professional Tennis Players’ Association has begun legal action against tennis’ governing bodies. David speaks to Matt Futterman of The Athletic about why this is happening, what the players want, and what might happen next.
Read The Athletic's news story by Matt Futterman.
Read The Athletic's explainer by Charlie Eccleshare.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Jeff Wayne, and my musical version of The War of the Worlds is returning to arenas this March in April with the Spirit of Man Tour. |
| 0:09.5 | For me, standing on stage, conducting world-class artists and musicians, surrounded by breathtaking technology, is nothing short of magical. |
| 0:18.9 | It's more than a show. It's a battle against the Martians, |
| 0:22.5 | and I'd love you to be part of the adventure. See you there. |
| 0:28.2 | Hi, this is Billy Jean King. This is Marion Bartoli. This is Bianca Andrescu. I'm Matt Villander. |
| 0:38.1 | This is Mary Carrillo. |
| 0:39.2 | This is Pam Schreiber. |
| 0:40.3 | This is Janik Noah. |
| 0:41.4 | And you're listening to the tennis podcast. |
| 0:59.2 | Hello, folks. David Law here. And, well, we weren't really planning a tennis podcast today, but I have just picked up my phone to the headline, Jokovic Player Union begins legal action against the Tours. |
| 1:08.5 | That was on the BBC Sport website. So as I usually do in situations |
| 1:13.0 | like this, I go to the Athletic, the Sports Division of the New York Times, and see what |
| 1:18.4 | they've got to say about it as well. And I read a headline that references a broken system |
| 1:24.2 | and a lawsuit being brought about by the professional tennis players association, |
| 1:30.8 | the PTPA, against the ATP, which is the men's tour and the WTA, the women's tour, also |
| 1:37.9 | the International Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which is responsible for anti-doping and anti-corruption in tennis. |
| 1:47.7 | So, well, how do we unravel all this and try to understand it? |
| 1:52.8 | We call Matt Futterman from The Athletic and ask him to let us know a little bit more about what's going on, |
| 2:00.3 | because Matt, you have just put together a pretty substantial piece. |
| 2:04.3 | I know Charlie Eccleshare has also put out an explainer piece as well, which I highly recommend anybody going on following this conversation to go and have a read of, really, to get an understanding, a really in-depth understanding of where we are and what's |
| 2:17.6 | been going on here. But Matt, what can you tell us generally about why the PTPA are bringing |
| 2:24.4 | this lawsuit? Well, thanks for having me, David. Yeah, they are bringing this lawsuit essentially |
... |
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