Denis Shapovalov is a PTPA supporter. The Canadian spoke with reporters Saturday night after his 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ilya Ivashka at the Miami and told them that he sides with the organization that Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil co-founded in order to give the players an independent voice in tennis.
Pospisil said he wasn’t at the meeting where Pospisil was reportedly yelled at for 90 minutes by ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi, but he does sympathize with the plight of Pospisil and other members of the PTPA.
“I wasn’t at the meeting, so I don’t know what went down,” he said. “You know, knowing Vasek personally for him to get this upset and have it bother him during a match, something must have happened.”
Shapovalov says he feels that the players could be served better by the ATP’s management.
“I have heard from several players a lot of not great information,” he said. “So, you know, I’m definitely on the PTPA side. I think we are not underrepresented, but I think there [are] ways that we could be represented better.”
Shapovalov says that players feel there options, whether they be entrepreneurial or otherwise, are limited in the current status quo on the ATP Tour.
“I don’t think that the ATP is doing the fullest job that they can be,” he said. “I think there are other ways, and there are players that are trying to introduce or help within the ATP bring in different information or sponsors and this and that, and basically we’re all getting shut down. They are just telling us to go and play tennis which in my opinion it’s not right. They shouldn’t, you know, talk to us like that if we’re partners.”