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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 1, 2019

Vasek Pospisil

Wimbledon, London, England

F. AUGER-ALIASSIME/V. Pospisil

5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. First match back. What's your assessment?
VASEK POSPISIL: Yeah, it was a lot of positives, to be honest. I felt like I was, considering I haven't played for eight months, that I was hitting the ball well. I mean, I started pretty well. I think as the match was going down, my level was just dropping a little bit. His was going up.

You know, you've gotta be in top shape and playing extremely well to be beat Felix in any match. Best of five, especially.

Q. You called the trainer for your back?
VASEK POSPISIL: No, it wasn't for my back. No, no, it was for my knee and my hip. Yeah, I just started to have, like, a little block, which I had been kind of, I was dealing with a few weeks ago, and then it was fine the last four days.

But then it just kind of came with the intensity of the match. It's just different. I think my hip was a little bit out of alignment, and it was causing some issues. But, I mean, I don't think it really affected too much. Like I said, you've got to be very ready physically in general to beat Felix. I think that's just the outcome of his physicality and maybe me not being my very best physical shape.

Q. There has been so much expectation about Felix coming into this tournament. That was his first Grand Slam win today. Was it an "I was there" moment? Because he's been tipped for such big things. What did you make of his game and about his whole approach? Where do you think it can go?
VASEK POSPISIL: I mean, I love Felix. I think he has such a good approach. I mean, I don't really know how Nadal was. I remember he was very mature when he came up, was in his teens. But that's not my era, but for sure he's the most mature player for his age that I have seen. Has so much potential.

Physically he's, you know, extremely strong and, yeah, he's very process driven. He has a really good team around him and a good approach, and I think the sky's the limit. Over the next couple years, we'll see how he progresses, but honestly, I think he could do amazing things in this sport.

Q. How well did you play compared to how you expected to play after so much time off?
VASEK POSPISIL: I played well. To be honest, it's probably what I expected a good-case scenario would be. Obviously I know going into the tournament I made a few comments to my team, Oh, it would be nice to play somebody who's not too physical (smiling).

Then the draw came out and we were kind of laughing about it, because obviously to test the body, it would have been nicer to play somebody that's a little bit, you know, shorter points. But it was good. Like, so many positives. He played great. I thought he played really well when he needed to, big points.

I started the match well, and then, yeah, as it kind of went on, he just slowly raised his level and mine just slowly went down. Very positive for me. That's what I would have liked to have played like my first match.

Q. There has been a lot of talk the past couple days about the ATP politics and what's going on. For those of us not up to speed on all of it, can you delineate what the major issues that are on the table and being contested and talked about are? Doesn't matter what you feel for them, but what are the guys talking about for seven hours?
VASEK POSPISIL: Well, I mean, the last meeting was, you know, about four hours' discussion on who would be our next board representative. I mean, we had two very different candidates with extremely different approaches. And both were very good candidates, but there was just a little bit of a disagreement with the group on what we perceived important that a board representative do. So I think that was the last one. It was just -- we were talking it through.

But in terms of the other issues, what I'm fighting for is to have legal representation for the players, I mean, in general. This is something that's been an issue since the ATP was created, and there is just a lot of people talk and talk and talk. And I know, like, the last 10 years I have been on tour, players and player council always talk about the problems and no one really actually try to solve anything.

What I have my sights on doing, because I think right now the players are in a really tough spot to get anything from the tournaments, be it slams, Masters, any tournament. We're negotiating with no leverage whatsoever. That's just the structure that we have, and so this is the battle.

This is why, I mean, players have been frustrated for years. And it's not so much, you know, a prize money issue as much as it is that we just have no say in anything. It's an illusion. They say we do have a say. They say it's 50% tournament, 50% players, but there is no say because it's just the way the whole structure is.

The votes are always tied. We never want to change them. There is huge conflict of interest. Players have their interest, tournament have theirs, so it always becomes a tie when you're voting on anything.

And then the president never breaks the tie, because if he does, he upsets one of the sides, and then he doesn't get re-elected because he needs a super-majority. It's a horrible system.

Q. If he doesn't break a tie nothing happens?
VASEK POSPISIL: No. If he doesn't break a tie nothing ever happens. And obviously the power and the money is all on the tournament side. Their pockets are extremely deep, and we are doing our thing. We have part-time board representatives and we're running our businesses, but we actually can't, I mean, negotiate, right? That's the issue that we have right now in a nutshell.

But then that becomes a whole other, I mean, that's the broad -- that's the reason why we have so many problems and we are discussing different ones right now, but that's the core of the problem.

Q. Did mass resignation surprise you? And was that a constructive way to handle the debate?
VASEK POSPISIL: Did it surprise me that they resigned? It did. To be honest, it did. Because we couldn't come to an agreement on -- and it was fine. I mean, there was no -- we said, okay, so the protocol at that point is -- what we decided mutually, all of us, was Okay, we will have new candidates come in in a few months, and then we will choose another candidate that we can all agree on, and in the meantime our board representatives that choose anybody they want on an interim basis...

Q. Board representatives?
VASEK POSPISIL: Board representatives.

Q. Not the player council?
VASEK POSPISIL: For the one that was currently chosen, it was the board representatives chose him, but just on a temporary basis until we actually decide who will take the three-year term.

And then the board representatives happen to choose one of the two that -- I mean, they could have chosen anybody, could have chosen me, could have chosen Tom. Anybody from North America could have taken the position, but they happened to choose one of the guys that we were discussing, and maybe some of the players weren't happy about it. But I think it's a broader issue.

I think a lot of those guys have been on the council -- I mean, I spoke to one of them, and he had been on the council for seven years. He said, You know what? I'm drained out. I have been battling for seven years and there is no -- we can't make any change.

Because in order to make a change, you actually need the tournaments to agree to the change. So no one's ever going to agree to give up leverage or power in a system, right? This is business, right? I get it. I mean, I understand, right?

But for us to actually change bylaws or anything in ATP, it needs to come from a super-majority vote from the players' side and tournament side. That's why there have been no significant changes for, I mean, since 1973, since it was actually, you know, established, the ATP.

Q. When you talk about legal representation for the players, what do you mean? And what's stopping you from just going and hiring...
VASEK POSPISIL: Well, we're actually -- we're not given this opportunity. I mean, the ATP bylaws are written in a way there are two lawyers representing both the tournament side and the players' side.

Q. Who are the two?
VASEK POSPISIL: Mark Young. I mean, Mark Young is in you every one of the meetings. There is another one but he's the main one. He's the ATP lawyer. And then whenever we try to kind of press for -- I mean, it's in the bylaws. It's written that the lawyer represents both the tournament and the players. We can't actually legally have our, based on how the bylaws are written, we can't even have legal representation.

Q. On the board?
VASEK POSPISIL: No, not on the board. I mean -- yeah, yeah. So we have board representatives, which that's not -- I'm not concerned about that legal representation. I mean lawyers, being unified.

Q. Represent you for what? Like, I guess my question is why don't you just put some lawyers on the board? You can elect whoever you want.
VASEK POSPISIL: Yeah, well, we do have lawyers on the board. What I'm talking about is unifying the players and actually -- which we are just not allowed to do, right? We are not allowed to have a union, not allowed to act separately. We're not allowed to do anything separately from the ATP, from the tournament side.

It's very complicated. It sounds logical, and that's why you're asking the question. There was a Deloitte report that said they never seen a structure this disastrous in sports. And they have gone through NHL, NFL, all the sports, and their report was this was a complete disaster. That's basically what they said.

I'm speaking out. There were so many scare tactics, we don't want to talk about it because we don't want it to be released, and don't want people to talk about it. But the issue is simple. It's clear. That's what we are battling. We are battling a monopoly of power of the whole tour, tournaments.

Q. Have you experienced any blowback because of this?
VASEK POSPISIL: Not yet, but I will (smiling).

Q. What do you expect?
VASEK POSPISIL: Well, I expect -- I guess it depends how far and how, how far and how close we get to achieving what I would like to achieve. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars at these events or in general, even just the direction or whatever. It's, like, I mean, we're getting a fraction of the gross revenues compared to all the other sports.

Most guys can't even, you know, can't invest in their business unless you're top 50. I feel like if you're a top 150 player, at least you should be able to reinvest and actually get a coach and a physio.

I mean, for example, I just had back surgery, and, you know, some people say, Yeah, there are physios on the ATP Tour. I literally need a physio with me the whole time for this whole comeback or I will just hurt my back again possibly.

These are risks I can't take, so I have to invest. They look at it, like, yeah, their explanation is, Well, we need to reinvest in our business and we're giving back, and, well, what about our business? We are a business too. Every one of us has our own business. It's not -- I don't think that's the right way to look at it.

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