Novak Djokovic's players' association sued the groups that run tennis. Why and what do they want?

Professional Tennis Players' Association files lawsuit against tennis organizations for player welfare, prize money, and scheduling issues.

Ons Jabeur is a three-time Grand Slam finalist with more than $13 million in prize money by age 30, and as she looked out at the main court used for the Miami Open this week and next, she rattled off a lengthy list of things she thinks could be fixed in professional tennis to help all players.

“We need to improve the structure that we have. ... We can do better about the scheduling. The times of matches. There are a lot of tournaments, and health-wise, for the players, I don't think that helps. The balls changing every week is not a good thing. Players deserve to be paid better,” said Jabeur, a member of the executive committee of the Professional Tennis Players' Association, a group co-founded by Novak Djokovic several years ago.

“Definitely a lot of things to work on.”

Those issues Jabeur mentioned were among those raised in a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed by the PTPA in federal court in New York on Tuesday, calling the groups in charge of the sport — the women's (WTA) and men's (ATP) tours, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the agency that oversees anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts (ITIA) — a “cartel.”

“The players really do demand to be heard, to have their issues taken seriously, to address these structural issues that plague tennis and really choke it as an international sport,” said PTPA executive director Ahmad Nassar, "and to create a system that brings balance and equality and fairness to really the entire business of tennis.”

Here is a look at the lawsuit — and there are similar actions moving forward in Brussels and London — and what it could mean for tennis:

The PTPA was founded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil and announced to the world just before the 2020 U.S. Open. The aim was to represent players who are independent contractors in a largely individual sport; tennis does not have a full-fledged union that negotiates collective bargaining agreements as in team sports.