US OPEN

September 4, 2020

Novak Djokovic

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/J. Struff

6-3, 6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Your efforts in the new organization. Why do you think what you couldn't achieve from inside the ATP is possible that you can get it from the new PTPA?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, first of all, as I said previously, this is not a new project, a new idea. This is not my idea or Vasek Pospisil's idea. We were just executing something that the previous generations in the last 20-plus years have attempted to do, and they have not managed to make that final step.

Right now we are prioritizing to gather as many players as possible, both male and female players, because there's been a lot of talks about this being an only men's organization or association, and it's not true. We have been talking with the women tennis players in the last five, six days, trying to share as much information with them as possible, and hopefully get their support and get them in as well in big numbers as part of this association.

This is not against ATP, WTA, ITF or any governing body. We are not looking to get into the legal disputes or substitute ATP or anything like that. I feel like we can all coexist in the same ecosystem.

It's very important for tennis players, being part of a very global sport, to have their own 100% player-only representation. This is historically now I think second time. The first time back in '72 when ATP was being formed in the parking lot here actually in New York, and from '73 you had an Association of Tennis Professionals. Actually was called differently. It was players only.

After the ATP as we know it today, from 1990, has joined forces with tournaments. Ever since then the way the structure and system works is 50% of the ownership or 50% of the decision making comes on the board from players and 50% from the tournaments.

Unfortunately most of the times players and tournaments have a different interest. I'm not saying all the time, but most of the time. Even though we are part of the same tour, we all focus on kind of different things. Of course, tournaments have to make sure that they have a sustainable tournament, good financial model, business model, and they focus on that.

Many times players' rights or voices are not being heard enough. Unfortunately in the system like this, you know, in the decision-making process, you need a majority on the board to decide something. As I said, there is a conflict of interest in most cases between players and tournaments.

Things that need to be decided or players want to push forward are usually put on the side because you don't have the majority of the votes. That's where everything stops.

Or the president has to decide. It's difficult for a president to really be running such an organization like the ATP because he always has to sit on the two chairs. This is not against ATP leadership. Right now I am in a good relationship with Andrea Gaudenzi and Massimo. I've known them for a long time. They are trying to do their best. Obviously Andrea has a good project in mind. I hope he's going to accomplish that.

This association is not intending to hinder the process of a realization of his project. This association is something that was just necessary to do for more than 20 years. Different tennis players in both men and women tennis tried to do something like this.

I am proud that we managed to do it. I am happy we have over 150 signatures so far from the players. We don't have the executive power now, and we might not have the executive power for quite some time, but we have to start from somewhere.

I hear people saying, It's not a good time to be divided. We are not separating or dividing. We are actually getting united. This is first time after many, many years that players will have 100% their own association that will represent them in the tennis ecosystem.

ATP, WTA still stay the same, still stay as governing bodies of our tours. They are supposed to be there. That's fine. We can live together. We can coexist. I don't understand why there is so much resistance towards this association, especially from players. I have to say I'm unpleasantly surprised with some players thinking this is not good for our sport. I don't agree.

I've been part of the players council in ATP for more than 10 years actually. I've done my very best to represent the players in the council and work with the board, ATP management, Grand Slams, as best as I possibly could do.

Unfortunately I don't think in the council you have as much power as a player to be part of decision making as the players should have. So that is one of the biggest reasons why we are forming this association, because we feel we deserve to have a stronger voice. It's as simple as that.

Q. I want to know if you heard about what happened with Adrian Mannarino today. How do you personally feel about the change in protocols that have been happening, whether you feel there was inconsistency or not? Do you feel the communication regarding these changes in protocols is being done properly or not?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Very good questions.

Yes, I was aware of what was happening with Adrian Mannarino. I was actually contacted by his coach during that process. I was communicating with his coach for a few hours actually, trying to help. I was speaking with ATP, trying to get more information from the tour managers.

I was also trying to get to the people that are in the highest positions in New York state through some of the contacts, trying to get to the governor of New York. I understood that he was the only one that could actually make the decision to revert the decision that Mannarino was withdrawn from the tournament.

In the end, to be honest, I don't know what exactly happened. They just told me that finally Adrian was allowed to play and he was on the court, which I was very pleased to see. I know that the tour manager, Thomas, told me they were working on that for many hours. They also see a lot of inconsistencies.

Unfortunately it's not in many cases up to ATP and USTA and WTA to make these decisions, make these calls, but on the New York health department. We knew that coming into States. We knew there is a high probability that situations like this might occur.

I am not happy with the way these kind of circumstances and this situation with the French players was managed. I am not happy to see that Dellien and Pella were in a very similar situation and were withdrawn from the tournament. They had to be quarantined in their room.

Then a very similar situation happened with the French guys, that obviously Benoit was positive. We don't even know if it was a false positive because after a few days he was negative.

That's another thing that needs to be addressed, of course. There have been a lot of false positive tests as I've been hearing in sport, also in general. But in sport I think it was an NFL team or somebody, or a baseball team here, that had seven or eight players positive, but then they actually determined in the second test it was a false positive.

That hasn't been cleared up here with Benoit. He's quarantined. He's out of the tournament. Then all the other guys that were close to him maybe during this time, they were allowed to play. Pella and Dellien were not allowed to play. They had a very similar situation. A lot of inconsistency.

Communication-wise, look, it's not I think ideal. It can be better. But at the same time I also understand that the ATP and USTA don't hold the decision-making process in their hands. Sometimes they have to just execute what the health department of New York and the City of New York orders them to do, otherwise the tournament might be compromised and canceled.

It's not easy. I mean, sometimes I don't want to be in the skin of people who were in the midst of this. At the same time, players I think are left with very little information, very little power to express themselves or to fight for their own right to play and to travel back home. It's very, very strange, I must say. Although these are strange times, very unpredictable what tomorrow brings. Obviously not just here in the States but in the world altogether.

I'm hoping this can be improved. I'm hoping this is only this year and only this tournament, but it doesn't seem like that. What I've been hearing from Rome and Paris is maybe even tougher circumstances than here. We'll most likely have to experience the bubble in Rome and Paris as we are experiencing here.

Then you have the second hotel here where a lot of players are staying where you have weddings happening, where regular people can come in, and half of the hotel or more is open for public. How is that a bubble? It's very complicated issue that we are discussing here.

I'm just hoping that we will all learn from this more and be stronger I think as players specifically because the players association that has been formed a week ago is exactly supposed to live and is supposed to exist because of these kind of circumstances and because of the situation.

We need to have support of the players. We need to stand by the players that are not treated in a right way. We have to do it all together. This is the whole point. Yes, we want to play. Yes, we want to compete. But sometimes when it's really not fair and someone is treated in a way that you don't want to be treated, you have to stand by him. This is the right thing to do.

Hopefully the association can grow stronger and we can have that power to actually give the support in the future to the players.

Q. You mentioned earlier that you are getting women involved in the players' efforts. In terms of leadership, you said earlier this evening that Sloane Stephens was involved in a signature effort. Is she on equal footing with you and Pospisil? If not Sloane, are other women involved in the leadership of this movement?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Well, yes, you're right. I mean, I did mention that we do have conversations, ongoing conversations, already. I've spoken to Serena about three days ago. Also to Sloane. Vasek has spoken to Sloane. Vasek and Sloane last year, before the Open, before the US Open, have managed to collect about 70% of the top 100 of participants at the US Open in singles, both men and women, to collect their signatures and approval to have the legal representative, which was the law firm from Canada, to go into hopefully negotiations with Grand Slams about prize money increase and several different things.

The law firm did send a letter to the USTA and other governing bodies that govern the Grand Slams, but there was not response from all of them. The response we got from some of them was not approving, was negative. They did not accept to sit on the table and discuss with players about that. They referred to ATP and WTA.

This year we got together again, but this time we wanted to do it differently so we can get more credibility, we can legitimately have an organization and association that can hopefully in the future have a respect in the ecosystem from all the governing bodies and be able to have and fight for the seat on the table in the decision making, the biggest decisions in our sport.

So, yes, you have to ask Sloane. Obviously I don't want to speak on her own behalf, and Serena, but there are conversations happening between us. I'm going to reach out to more female tennis players.

It's a process. It's going to take time. We also don't have majority of the players in top 500 singles, or top 200 doubles at the moment. We are gradually increasing. Our priority is to grow these numbers as much as we can. We have patience. We're not rushing anywhere.

We are not going against ATP. We don't want to shut anybody down. For us, we're not conflictual organization. We feel like we are, first of all, legally allowed to coexist and we should coexist with everyone else.

I think this only adds value to the players and only adds value to the whole tennis ecosystem.