January 11, (THEWILL) – Ons Jabeur, Paula Badosa, and Hubert Hurkacz are among the eight players, who have joined Novak Djokovic, on the executive committee of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA).
Djokovic came up with the idea for the PTPA in 2020 and left the ATP players’ council to start the player-only organisation that is independent of tennis’s existing regulating organisations.
The Serbian founded the breakaway players’ body alongside Canada’s Vasek Pospisil, in an effort to fight for better rights for all players from the top down. The PTPA, according to Djokovic and Pospisil, is intended to better protect the interests of all players, but at the time, it was met with vehement hostility.
But on Wednesday, the PTPA said that its first executive committee, made up of eight players, had been constituted with Jabeur, Badosa, Hurkacz, John Isner, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and Zheng Saisai, presently on board.
After players like Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal spoke out against “dividing” the tennis community during the COVID-19 crisis, this represents a big milestone for the breakaway body. The second-ranked female player in the world, Jabeur, placed second at both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2017.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
