Djokovic's Player Union Not Needed According To Wawrinka Who Wants More Direct Approach

Wednesday, 22 November 2023 at 16:30

bySebastian Dahlman

Stan Wawrinka doesn't agree with Novak Djokovic about the need for a tennis players union but more so with players being involved in the decision-making process.

Tennis players are all different people, meaning they have different opinions on how to do things. While Novak Djokovic thinks that players should create a type of union, which is what he hopes to do with the PTPA, some others disagree.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal famously came out against the PTPA initiative, and to an extent, Stan Wawrinka agrees. The veteran doesn't think a union is really needed, but he does think that players should be more directly involved in the decision-making process.

He's not been a fan of excluding players, which happened often in recent years with the Davis Cup - an event he slammed earlier this year.

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We don’t need a players’ union, we need players on the decision-making tables. Tennis Australia showed up to say: “We’re starting on the first Sunday”, like that, thank you goodbye. Did anyone ask us what we thought about it? No. It’s like that. From the outside, you tell yourself that this is not normal! That means we don’t work together.

— Wawrinka on players not being involved<br>

Many examples help illustrate how players are not involved in the decision-making process, and you don't have to look too far. Wawrinka expanded further in his interview with L'Equipe about the tennis balls controversy.

The real problem with tennis is that most things are done in reaction. Nobody anticipates anything. We must include the players in the discussions to also explain to them the reasons for such and such discussions.

When it comes to balls, the tournaments don’t want to agree because they all have a different sponsor, and at the same time we still have to fight to have enough to train with. We [go in circles. I’ve been on the circuit for twenty years and we talk about the same problems over and over again. The problem with tennis is that there are too many governances, too many different entities (ITF, Grand Slam tournaments, ATP, WTA) which only look out for their own interests.