Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer Surprise Members to Join ATP Player Council

The ATP Player Council consists of 12-members which is responsible for delivering advisory decisions to the Board of Directors. However, the Board of Directors has the ability to accept or reject the suggestions from the ATP Player Council, headed by the World No.1, Novak Djokovic.

The Associations of Tennis Professionals made an addition to the ATP Player Council as it announced an update to the council. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Jurgen Melzer were elected by the existing members of the ATP Player Council as a replacement for Robin Haase, Jamie Murray, and Sergiy Stakhovsky, who resigned from their positions at the council prior to the Wimbledon Championships 2019.

Nadal, Federer, and Melzer will begin their roles with immediate effect. They are abiding to serve until the end of the existing term which will end at the Wimbledon Championships 2020. However, the position of Coach representative is still left to be determined after Daniel Vallverdu stepped from his position after a seven-hour plus meeting at Wimbledon that finished past midnight.

Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Jurgen Melzer will attend their first council meeting prior to the US Open as the next Player Council meeting is scheduled to take place in New York before the start of the last Grand Slam event of the season.

Before the commencement of Wimbledon, the Dutch tennis professional, Robin Haase, coach Daniel Vallverdu and Jamie Murray resigned from the ATP player council. Post that, Djokovic stated about the inefficient functioning of the ATP board and he notified the turbulence and politics taking place in the board.

“I think it’s a system and a structure that keeps on failing us,” the Serb elaborated. “I’ve been saying this before. We are all here as volunteers, as guys that are trying to do the role responsibly and also make sure that players are represented, different groups of players are represented.”

The new ATP Player Council consists of four players, who are ranked within the Top 50 in singles – Kevin Anderson (Vice President), Rafael Nadal, John Isner, and Sam Querrey. It also includes two players are ranked between 51 and 100 in singles – Yen-Hsun Lu and Vasek Pospisil.

In addition, the council will also compile of two top 100 players in doubles – Jurgen Melzer and Bruno Soared. The Player Council has two at large members – Novak Djokovic (President) and Roger Federer with one alumni member – Colin Dowdeswell. The coach representative is yet to be decided.