MELBOURNE, Australia — At last year’s U.S. Open, Novak Djokovic discussed the challenge of juggling being an elite tennis player, an inherently selfish occupation, with trying to bring about meaningful change in the sport.
“When the players needed to be active and when there was a time of negotiations and decision-making, players weren’t participating enough,” Djokovic said during a news conference, regarding the discussions that led to the extension of ATP and WTA 1000 tournaments from seven to 12 days.
“This is an ongoing story of the players, particularly top players. They express their feelings, but then when you really need to put in the time and the energy into conversations, meetings, which I know is very difficult. I have been there, trust me, many times,” Djokovic said of the format change that players now largely dislike for its incursion into extended rest.
The tours say that the extension drives increased revenue and thus prize money, and that days off between matches are sufficient rest.
A review of the extension will not take place until 2030, but other top players have taken up Djokovic’s implicit challenge. Two of them are compatriots, good friends and joint podcast hosts — and will meet in the Australian Open fourth round on Sunday.
Madison Keys vs. Jessica Pegula is a huge match at any time, pitting the defending champion and world No. 9 Keys against a U.S. Open finalist and top-five regular for the last few years in Pegula. This is what they are here for — and yet both don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture.
Pegula and Keys are part of a group of leading players that mobilized last year to lobby the four Grand Slams for change. Their focus is improved prize money, up from the roughly 15 to 20 percent of tournament revenues to around 22 percent by 2030, in line with ATP and WTA events. The group is also seeking greater consultation on how the tournaments are run, and player welfare contributions.
Since the group sent the first of two letters to the Grand Slams demanding change last March, Pegula has become one of the group’s unofficial leaders, as well as sitting on the WTA Players’ Council.
“I don’t know if it’s just because I’m friendly with a lot of them, but I’ve definitely been doing a lot of the communicating,” she said during an interview Thursday after beating another compatriot, McCartney Kessler. “I’ve been trying to help keep everybody on the same page, which is difficult with everyone’s busy schedules and focusing on other things as well.”
Pegula said that the group is yet to receive a formal response from the majors, despite sending two further letters last summer, which she said left the group “a little let down.” The Grand Slams did not respond to requests for comment on the lack of response.
For Keys, who said earlier this week that her priority in the discussions with the majors is welfare contributions over prize money, the juggle between schedules leads to the difficulty of sustaining pressure that Djokovic described.
“It’s definitely tricky,” she said during a news conference after beating Ashlyn Krueger, also of the U.S.
“I spent many years on the player council, as well. When I do things, I want to do them to the best of my ability, so I put a lot of my effort into it.
“You want to do a good job, and you want to put the time and effort into it. But then that’s also one other thing that’s taking your focus away from doing your other job.
“It’s easy when you’re doing well and things are going great to just say, ‘Oh, I’ve got it all under control,’ and then you have a few bad weeks, and it’s easy to blame it.”
The day before this year’s Australian Open started, some of the top-10 players and their agents met to discuss the tournament’s increased prize money package this year, and the next steps for maintaining pressure on the upcoming two majors — the French Open and Wimbledon. Amid an antitrust lawsuit against the four majors and the two tours from the Professional Tennis Players’ Association, which Djokovic co-founded but recently left, change is swirling around tennis. But the parties involved are yet to agree on how all the things they agree should change, including the 11-month season, will change.
For Pegula, who turns 32 next month, her desire to help bring about change comes from a feeling that “when you get older, you start seeing things you want to see change in your sport, and it becomes more than just what you are doing on the court.
“You always want to feel like you’ve left some sort of legacy. I would say that’s part of my motivation, continuing to hope that the sport grows and maybe help with that.”
Her family background means Pegula has seen up close how tennis differs from sports such as the NFL and NBA, in which collective bargaining agreements between teams and leagues have led to more favorable revenue splits — something tennis struggles to emulate because players are independent contractors. Her parents, Terry and Kim, are the principal owners of the NFL team Buffalo Bills, while Terry also owns NHL team the Buffalo Sabres.
Pegula referenced Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalenka, Belinda Bencic and Jasmine Paolini as taking an active role in discussions. When Pegula couldn’t make a meeting with the Grand Slam representatives at last year’s French Open, Gauff and Sabalenka stepped in — “they responded in two minutes, (saying) whatever you need,” Pegula said.
Sabalenka, the world No. 1, said in a news conference Sunday that she relies on the support of her team to help her juggle playing with politics.
On the men’s side, Pegula mentioned compatriots Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, as well as her U.S Open mixed doubles partner, Jack Draper, as especially engaged. She then reflected on why tennis can struggle to affect change.
Jessica Pegula cited Jack Draper as one of the ATP players most engaged in organizing reform. (Elsa / Getty Images)
“Everybody is on their own,” Pegula said. “You’re on your own team, you’re competing by yourself, you’re playing against these people. It’s a very competitive kind of atmosphere, totally different than other sports.
“It’s hard to get everybody from different backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds, and different upbringings to all come together, and at the same time, you have to win to make your money. It’s not like you’re getting paid a salary.”
Keys said in her pre-tournament news conference that she was “cautiously optimistic” that the players and majors could reach some sort of agreement.
In her news conference Saturday, Pegula said she was unaware of the PTPA’s proposal for a new streamlined “Pinnacle Tour,” which was first reported by the Telegraph Thursday and which has been developed with the cooperation of Tennis Australia.
The model of fewer events, higher pay and a base salary for players resembled the “Premium Tour” that the four majors proposed a couple of years ago, as well as a deck that the tours presented to the majors last year.
A person briefed on the players’ plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships in the sport, said there had been some disgruntlement among the players at Tennis Australia’s alignment with the PTPA.
The person said that some players feel the PTPA doesn’t necessarily represent their interests, especially with Djokovic having left.
A representative for the PTPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ahead of their match Monday, Pegula and Keys will turn away from politics. Keys’ form has been a little scratchy this tournament, but she has played her best tennis when in danger. Pegula has been a model of consistency, not dropping a set and losing only 10 games in her three matches.
There is another wrinkle in this match, as the pair are close friends, hosting a podcast together, The Player’s Box. They recorded an episode Sunday and Keys said that whoever loses might have to do some sort of forfeit — in her case, having to eat Pegula’s beloved apple pie topped with cheddar cheese. “She tried to make it sound like it was the most normal thing ever, and we were all just disgusted,” Keys said in her news conference Saturday. “She tried to double down and said, ‘No, it’s amazing.’
“So our producer tried it and was, like, ‘This is grossest thing.’”
Pies, politics and podcasts — being a modern-day tennis player is about a lot more than just forehands and backhands. But for a couple of hours on Rod Laver Arena Monday afternoon, the two players will enjoy focusing solely on their day job.
