While 2020 hasn’t been the best of years for most sports stars, it has been a roller coaster ride for Serbian Novak Djokovic. Djokovic, who has been out of sorts form wise, has been trending in the news and headlines for some atrocious moments on and off the court.
His most recent adventure was to create a new players only association named the Professional Tennis Players Association or PTPA. The PTPA has been a polarizing topic of discussion for all players, new and old.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova recently jumped into this conversation and revealed that she was totally against the formation of a new players association. She even advised Djokovic to use all the extra energy on the field rather than on a players association.
“He thinks he’s doing the right thing. I don’t agree with it but it’s his choice. It certainly didn’t seem to help his tennis. Purely from a logical point of view, when you are a champion tennis player, when you commit to the sport, your energy goes into that. But starting this association? This is not helpful on any level,” Navratilova said in a conversation with The Irish Times.
Navratilova took the same stance on PTPA that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer had taken by refusing to be a part of it. Federer and Nadal had mentioned the need for players to remain united during this crisis.
“Do that when you stop playing tennis but it’s controversial and not helpful. During Covid, you’re trying to divide us further when we should be trying to bring the game together and trying to figure out how to play tournaments without people getting sick and dying from Covid? Let’s stay with that problem rather than creating one we don’t need,” Navratilova added.
Despite this criticism, Djokovic has expressed eagerness to include both Nadal and Federer in the association.
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWU16cdU11w