Novak Djokovic served as the godfather of tennis player protest several years ago when he helped start the PTPA. But the former No. 1 has ruled himself out of taking action now as competitors voice their dis-satisfaction over prize money splits at the French Open.

While Djokovic’s Professional Tennis Player Association still exists, the organisation which never truly took flight, has been superseded by the current protest at Roland Garros.

Many top competitors are limiting media time to a quarter of an hour and refusing to speak with TV rightsholders who in some cases have paid millions for access during the Paris Grand Slam.

Djokovic, who turned 39 on Friday, is content to watch from the sidelines after helping kickstart the player rights movement.

“I’m not part of that, I haven’t been part of the conversation or the planning or decision-making.

“But I have always been on the players’ side and tried to advocate

for players’ rights and better future for players – not only top players, players across all rankings, across all fields

“We tend to forget how little is the number of people that (make a living) from this sport.

“If we want to nurture the future, have the players thrive from this sport, not

just survive, and if we also want to increase or improve the sport as a whole and increase the number of the kids who want to enroll themselves into a journey of becoming a professional tennis player.”

Djokovic called the current tennis hierarchy “very fragmented.”

“It’s already complex enough. how the structure is set and how we are regulated. Let’s see and let’s learn also from golf, a good example of professional individual global sport that has been through and is still

going through very challenging times in terms of the
governance and splitting tours and players.

“It’s not one or two things that are happening this tournament …overall there are a lot of rumors, a lot of sentiment on what is happening in terms of the changes in sport.

“I think it’s something inevitable, so hopefully we’re going to be able to do it with least turbulence possible.”

Novak Djokovic turned 39 on Friday and celebrated by putting a lid on his chances of lifting a record 25th Grand Slam singles title at Roland Garros.

The fourth-ranked icon arrives in Paris after losing his pre-Paris only match in Rome after suffering with injuries throughout a dismal spring and missing around two months of play.

“It’s been a lot of hours on the court trying to perfect the game and the body

and enable myself physically and game-wise to be ready for best-of-five (sets),” he said.

“I don’t know whether that’s going to be the case for the entire
tournament, however long that tournament will be for me.

“Grand Slams have always (headed) the priority list, particularly in the last couple of years. 

“So I always try to aim to be at the peak of my own abilities to perform well in Grand Slams.I can’t wait to get on a court and start competing.”

Djokovic said that a “higher force” kept him from playing over the majority of the spring clay season, and admitted to doubts that he would even be ready to compete in Paris.

“I wanted to play more, but my body was not allowing me. I was going through rehabilitation process for my injury (reportedly a shoulder, though he has never said…)

“After Indian Wells (early March) , it was, yeah, just not possible for

me to compete for several months.’

He added: “I really wanted to go to Rome to give it a shot and try and see how I feel. I was far from being ready to compete, but still, I needed at least that one match just to have the score called by the chair umpire and have
experience of the nerves.

“Thankfully, the response of the body and the preparation has been positive in the last 10 days, so here I am, and we’ll see what happens.”

Casper Ruud needed less than 48 hours to shrug off his Rome finals loss to Jannik Sinner, with the Norwegian starting strong at the ATP Geneva event with a 6-3, 7-5 opening win over Jenson Brooksby on Tuesday.

The three-time champion in the Swiss border metropolis advanced at the pre-Roland Garros tune-up with 21 winners.

Ruud won the title here in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

“This stretch of tournaments is quite a lot but they are nice tournaments and I like playing here,” the winner said.

“I like playing on clay. I try to use the clay season the most I can and every time I come to Geneva I have a good result at Roland Garros, so let’s hope to keep that tradition going.” 

The Scandinavian owns two Roland Garros finals, losing to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in Paris..