We all know Donald Trump is never shy of wading into a dispute and there is reason to believe he could soon put his size-12 shoes into the tennis civil war.
On Tuesday afternoon a group of players, including Nick Kyrgios, and the Novak Djokovic-founded wannabe tennis union PTPA, filed a lawsuit against what they describe as the ‘cartel’ running the sport.
The claimants believe the ATP, WTA, ITF and anti-corruption body the ITIA conspire to keep players underpaid and powerless.
The link to Trump is that one of the PTPA’s first backers was billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who is also a staunch supporter of the US President.
Trump is in the midst of attempting to broker a deal between golf’s PGA tour and the Saudi-backed LIV breakaway tour so perhaps he will try his hand at sorting tennis’s problems.
The president hosted a meeting of golf’s warring factions at the White House last month and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has said Trump’s intervention has ‘significantly bolstered’ the talks.
Donald Trump has a potential link to tennis’ civil war after a group of players and the union founded by Novak Djokovic (right) filed a lawsuit against the sport’s governing bodies
Trump has made a crucial intervention into the golf feud between the PGA Tour and LIV, with Tiger Woods recently heaping praise on the president’s influence
The 78-year-old is a mad-keen golfer and while he is not as keen on a moving yellow ball as a stationary white one he once hit with Serena Williams, in 2015, at the opening of a tennis facility at Trump National Golf Club.
Trump’s intervention in golf’s civil war has been a crucial one, with sporting legend Tiger Woods recently heaping praise on his influence on the feud between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
‘I think we’re in a very positive place right now,’ Woods said during the CBS Sports broadcast of the Genesis Open in San Diego last month.
‘We had a meeting with the president. Unfortunately I had some other circumstances that came up but Jay and Adam, they did great during the meeting and we have a subsequent meeting coming up.
Trump met with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, as well as Woods and his fellow PGA Tour player Adam Scott.
Tennis is now facing a similar crisis as a group of players and Djokovic’s tennis union launch a legal battle against the sport’s governing bodies for running a ‘corrupt, abusive and illegal system’.
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