ATP won’t admit it, but PTPA is having an impact: Pospisil

The larger image: Pospisil added that the PTPA is tackling points past simply prize cash. | Photo: Sudhakara Jain

Since August 2020, when Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil first sowed the seeds for the formation of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), the breakaway physique outdoors the ATP’s ambit has had a gingerly existence.

Establishing the chief committee, inclusion of ladies gamers (like Ons Jabeur and Paula Badosa) and the appointment of a full-time government director (Ahmad Nassar), all took time till August 2022.

But Pospisil, a former Wimbledon doubles champion and a singles quarterfinalist, feels the Association, which has positioned itself as an organisation that prioritises players’ wants in distinction to the ATP which balances the pursuits of each gamers and tournaments, is already making “huge strides.”

At the beginning of 2023, ATP introduced a 60% improve in whole prize cash (from $13.2m in 2022 to a file $21.1m). Pospisil felt that it was due to PTPA stress.

“They won’t ever admit it…but even three years in the past when the brand new chairman [Andrea Gaudenzi] was coming in, he had no plans for the Challenger degree,” Pospisil, a PTPA government committee member, stated on the sidelines of the dafaNews Bengaluru Open.

“He was even overtly speaking about it [money] being trickle down. So it is for certain the stress of the Association. It is nice that we’re already having this affect not directly and that’s what we wish to do.”

The Canadian stated that the ATP had nonetheless not warmed as much as the PTPA. But the group, which has additionally discovered assist from India’s Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal, is aiming excessive and is tackling points past simply prize cash.

“There is psychological well being…what to do after your profession, monetary planning, insurance coverage and so on,” the previous World No. 25 stated. “We wish to construct an internet of companies.

“Personally, the largest factor that individuals don’t even learn about is life after tennis. Nobody is aware of about it till they retire and also you see all these athletes who’ve melancholy. Because they cease enjoying sport and all of a sudden they don’t have an id. It is quite common.

“Building a platform for offering some assist, even educating a few of these gamers as to what can occur after tennis, that’s a giant one for me.”