Novak Djokovic has asserted that players “are not united enough” and called for top stars to take a more active role in pushing change after the recent complaints about the tennis schedule.
In the last week, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff all expressed criticism about the length of the tennis season and number of tournaments players are expected to compete in.
In his pre-tournament press conference at the Shanghai Masters, Djokovic was asked if he agreed with the dissent from his fellow players.
Here is the full 658-word monologue that Djokovic delivered on the topic.
DJOKOVIC: Okay. Well, I was personally against the extension of the days of duration of the Masters 1000 events, right? I felt from the very beginning I was against it. Actually, even when I was in the council, I think I was at the time president of the council, so I was not supportive of that. I think for the players it’s not good.
From one perspective you could say, I mean, for me at my age right now, to have the days between the tournaments is good. But I think overall, for most of the players, it just takes away the days in the schedule, in the calendar. Personally, I’m not supportive of that. I understand that there is upside to the tournaments and so forth, but as a player I never liked that.
So I do empathise or sympathise with players who are against that, because now they are realising, I guess, that it’s not really great. But at the same time, look, you know, you always have, it’s an individual sport, so there are choices to be made. In the end of the day, you can still make choices. I see some players maybe say there are rules imposed and etcetera. But there are rules imposed for bonus. So you can miss the bonus, but it’s the choice that you are willing to make if you want to play less. But then there are exhibitions as well that players are signing up for, so it’s a little bit contradictory.
Yeah, I guess I’ve been talking about this topic for so many years, you know, this is not first time. And people who know me and know my press conferences and my time in the council, they know that more than 15 years ago I was talking about us needing to come together and reorganise the schedule and the calendar. Even way before the 30-year deal plan came to realisation with Masters events.
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But, you know, it’s a very long topic, so I don’t know where to start, where to finish, to be honest. It’s very complex, it’s not that simple, you know. I don’t want to sound like I’m supportive or not supportive, because there’s different elements that you have to take in consideration.
The monopoly that has been created in this sport has been very strong for the last, you know, three, four decades. And there are people who just don’t want to change things in our sport, you know, for the better, in terms of when it comes to the players’ welfare. You know, because everybody works in their own interest. And that’s logical, I guess, business sense.
In the end, as a player and someone that has been playing on the highest level for more than 20 years, I can say that the players are not united enough. Players are not participating enough when they should be. So they make the comments and they complain, and then they go away. And then if something is wrong, after a certain amount of time they come back again. But you have to invest the time, you have to invest energy yourself, not your agent, not your team, not your parents, not anybody, yourself, to dedicate yourself to understand how the system works, to understand what are the things that can be done to be reversed, to be improved in terms of the players’ interest.
For that to happen, you need the top players particularly, you know, to sit down, roll up their sleeves, and really care a bit more about participating in understanding all of the hot topic, I would say. Because going out in the media and talking about this and that, okay, it might stir up some energy or some attention. But in the end of the day, it’s not going to change, nothing is going to change, you know? I know it from my personal experience, trust me. So, yeah, it’s quite a complex topic.
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