Tennis

Frustrated by what they view as a lack of leverage in the sport of men’s tennis, top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil are forming a breakaway body to represent the interests of male players outside of the current structure of the Association of Tennis Professionals, and have resigned their leadership roles in the association’s player council.Pospisil, a Canadian ranked No. 92 in singles, announced his resignation on Twitter on Friday night, saying that within the current structure of the men’s tennis tour, “it is very difficult, if not impossible, to have any significant impact on any major decisions made by our tour.”Djokovic, the president of the player council, and John Isner, the highest-ranked American men’s player, also resigned their positions, according to three people familiar with their decisions. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the resignations had not been made public.Many details about the new group remain vague beyond its name, the Professional Tennis Players Association, and its intention to represent men’s singles players in the top 500 and doubles players in the top 200.It is not clear, for example, if its goal would be to bargain collectively like players’ unions in other professional sports. Unlike athletes in the N.F.L., Major League Baseball and the N.B.A., among other leagues, tennis players are independent contractors.But it is clear that the ATP sees the upstart effort as a threat, and its leaders have urged players not to support it.Djokovic and Pospisil detailed the plans in a document they distributed to other players, which was obtained by The New York Times. In it, they argue that an autonomous body for player interests is necessary. The ATP, founded 30 years ago, represents players and tournaments jointly, with both sides having seats on the governing board for decisions.“The goal of the PTPA is not to replace the ATP, but to provide players with a self-governance structure that is independent from the ATP and is directly responsive to player-members’ needs and concerns,” the players said in the document soliciting sign-ups from other top players on the tour.Neither Pospisil, Isner, nor a representative for Djokovic responded to requests for comment. Djokovic, who won a three-hour semifinal at the Western & Southern Open on Friday afternoon despite needing a medical timeout, skipped his post-match news conference. The tournament said its medical team “advised him not to do press today.”Andrea Gaudenzi, the ATP chairman, did not respond to a request for comment.One glaring absence from the plan is the inclusion of women’s players in the formation of the group.Pospisil had spoken eagerly last year about working together with female players. The idea appeared to gain steam as Pospisil led a large group, including Sloane Stephens and others, to urge the Grand Slam tournaments to commit more money to athletes. The tournaments did not engage.Yet as leaders of the men’s and women’s tours expressed in the spring that it might be mutually beneficial to merge the tours — especially in light of the financial troubles brought on by the coronavirus pandemic — many men’s players reacted negatively to that prospect and some said that women’s players did not deserve to make as much money as the men.Two of the sports biggest stars, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, have expressed support for merging the tours and have not previously supported the calls a new players association.In their document, Djokovic and Pospisil envision the group as “representing the interests” of its members in areas such as revenue sharing, disciplinary actions, player pensions, travel, insurance and amenities at tournaments.Djokovic and Pospisil have appointed themselves “initial co-presidents” of the association, serving a term of two years. The organization plans to be governed by an elected board of up to nine people.In a message to players this week, Pospisil said players in the new association would meet Saturday night and “take a group photo to document the historic moment.” He said the group would have “essentially the same function as a union” but with more legal flexibility.“There will be a lot of work building and perfecting the operations of this association, but this is the first and most pivotal step that we must take,” Pospisil, who has been consulting with the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, wrote in his message to players. He added, “Our voices will finally be heard and we will soon have an impact on decisions that affect our lives and livelihoods.”Gaudenzi, in a letter to players that was obtained by The Times, urged the athletes “not to take lightly” the ramifications of starting a new association while acknowledging that “no organizational structure is perfect.”Gaudenzi framed the formation of a competing player organization as an existential threat to the ATP, and said the group should not expect to be recognized by the tournaments. He argued that the action could threaten the power players already have within the sport.“You have what other athletes in other sports would strive for — a seat at the boardroom table. That is what players fought for in the creation of the ATP Tour,” Gaudenzi said. “It makes no sense why you would be better served by shifting your role from the inside to the outside of the governance structure.”Milos Raonic, who won on Friday to reach the final of the Western & Southern Open, which is being held in Queens at the same site as the United States Open next week, said he planned to sign up for the association, and expected a majority of players to join him. Raonic said that players were unhappy with the communication and leadership of Gaudenzi and other executives during the tour’s pandemic hiatus.“Players have had plenty of time to think and reflect and take a look at certain parts which they may not be happy with and discuss,” Raonic said. He added: “I voiced my opinion on many things, such as other sports, executives in other sports taking pay cuts to support us. As tennis players, we weren’t making a dime for months and months.”Gaudenzi closed his plea to players by asking for unity.“We should not forget that, as an entertainment product, our competition for audiences and long-term growth is with other sports and forms of entertainment,” he wrote. “Our battle is not with each other. Now, more than ever, is the time for unity and collaboration.”Christopher Clarey contributed reporting. More

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Robert Ryland, the first Black professional tennis player and for many years a well-regarded coach of younger players and celebrities, died on Aug. 2 at his stepson’s home in Provincetown, Mass. He was 100.His wife, Nancy Ingersoll, said the cause was aspiration pneumonia. They had left their home in Manhattan in March because of the pandemic, she said, so that her son, Raymond Ingersoll, could help with his care.During Mr. Ryland’s prime playing years, the major tennis tournaments were largely all-white affairs. The Grand Slam tournaments were amateur events; in 1956 Althea Gibson became the first Black player to win a Grand Slam with her victory at the French Open.Mr. Ryland was a top player in the American Tennis Association, a Black organization, winning its men’s singles titles in 1955 and 1956. In 1959, in his late 30s, he was invited to join Jack March’s World Pro Championships, and was paid $300 for playing a tournament in Cleveland. That, according to the Black Tennis Hall of Fame, made him the first professional Black player.Past his prime, he didn’t last long on the pro circuit — “I had only exposed myself to Black tennis, and we didn’t have that type of competition,” he told The Wall Street Journal last year — but he broke a formidable barrier.“People stand on his shoulders,” Leslie Allen, a top women’s player in the 1970s and ’80s whom he coached, told The Journal, “and they don’t even know who he is.”Robert Henry Ryland Jr. was born on June 16, 1920, in Chicago. His father was a postal worker. His mother, Augusta (Gibbs) Ryland, went into a tuberculosis hospital when Robert was young and died four years later; his twin brother had died as an infant.His father was of Irish and Native American descent, and his mother was Black.“When you’re part Black and part white you can deal better with prejudice,” Mr. Ryland once said. “You know what Black is and you know what white is. You know everybody’s the same.”After his mother became ill, he went to live with his grandmother in Mobile, Ala., for several years. When he returned to Chicago, his father began teaching him tennis, and he took to it.“I used to sleep with my racket,” he told the New York radio station WINS this year.After graduating from Tilden Technical High School in Chicago, he won a scholarship to Xavier University of Louisiana, but he left in 1941 to join the Army and served for four years. In 1946 he won a scholarship to Wayne University (now Wayne State University) in Detroit, where he anchored the tennis team for two seasons and competed in N.C.A.A. tournaments.He left college again in 1947 to play tennis on the West Coast. In 1954, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College (now Tennessee State University) lured him back to college as a player-coach. He earned a bachelor of science degree in physical education there in 1955.Mr. Ryland won various local tennis titles in the cities where he lived, and he continued to play competitively into his 80s. He also became known as a tennis teacher, especially at the Midtown Tennis Club in New York, where he worked from 1963 to 1990. Arthur Ashe, Harold Solomon and Renee Blount were among those he tutored.“You could almost identify Robert Ryland students based on how they struck the ball and how solid they were as players,” Ms. Allen said in a phone interview.She said that Mr. Ryland, a friend of her mother’s, first gave her coaching when she was 11 and wasn’t quite ready to embrace the sport. She became more passionate years later, and while in college committed herself to becoming a pro; others were telling her she was already too old, she said, but Mr. Ryland knew better.“It was his ability to see where an athlete was in their journey and what they needed to get to the next step” that made him a good coach, she said. “When I finally got the tennis bug, he had laid a good foundation for me to build on.”Mr. Ryland also coached celebrities, either teaching them the game or trying to make them better at it.“Stars can be hard to teach,” he told New York magazine in 1981. “They have problems coming down off their ego pedestals. Bill Cosby thought he knew how to do everything already and didn’t have to be taught. Barbra Streisand had a photographer around all the time. The key is to keep your mind quiet on the courts.”Mr. Ryland’s previous marriages ended in divorce. Ms. Ingersoll said that she and Mr. Ryland had been together since 1978. His stepson also survives him.Mr. Ryland was quick to provide tennis pointers even in his old age, and would do so during strolls past the courts in Central Park.“He’d say, ‘Step in, catch the ball early,’” Ms. Ingersoll said in a phone interview. “He was always there with advice.” More

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