The professional tennis tours and two other defendants jointly filed a motion in federal court in New York to dismiss theclass-action antitrust lawsuit filedby theProfessional Tennis Players' Association, a group co-founded byNovak Djokovic. The PTPA sued the WTA women's tour, the ATP men's tour, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which oversees anti-doping and anti-corruption efforts in the sport, in March, calling them a "cartel." The players are seeking a greater share of revenues and also raised various other complaints about how tennis is structured, including limits on prize money and a lack of competition from rival tours or tournaments. The PTPA wasfounded by 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic and Vasek Pospisilwith the aim of representing players who are independent contractors in a largely individual sport. The group's executive director, Ahmad Nassar, repeatedly has said it is not a full-fledged union, does not have members and does not collect dues — all of which are pointed to in one of Tuesday's motions as reasons why the PTPA does not have standing as a plaintiff in the case. That motion came from all four defendants. A separate motion, filed only by the WTA, says that the male plaintiffs — 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios, Reilly Opelka and Tennys Sandgren were among those named — should not be suing the women's tour, and also argues that the female plaintiffs — who include Sorana Cirstea and Varvara Gracheva — should be compelled to go to binding arbitration instead of pursuing the court case. A spokesman for the PTPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. ___ Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here:https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis:https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
