The Association of Professional Players and its president Alejandro Galan have addressed an end of inadmissibility to the World Padel Tour and its proposed changes for next season, announces the site Padel High. The Spanish circuit and its new vice-president Alex Corretja had invited the players, Tuesday, October 18, during the WPT Menorca Open, to present the new formula of the circuit. The ex-tennis player Corretja promised a “huge effort and an astonishing improvement” in the conditions offered to players, not only in terms of prize money but also in terms of player assistance.

The legal proceedings in question

But the latter – at least those who represent the male elite – rejected this proposal outright, simply announcing that they would boycott the invitation of the WPT, as long as legal proceedings were in progress against players. Some of the latter are in fact reproached for not having respected the terms of the contract which binds them to the World Padel Tour.

The Association of Professional Players has set as “essential prerequisite” the fact that “Setpoint Events SA [Editor’s note: the company behind the WPT] modify its conduct, treatment and relationship with players in order to treat them as equals and, in particular, that it first withdraw any legal action brought against the players and the association itself”.

The ladies respect their contract

The association chaired by the world No. 1 brings together more than 200 professional players on the men's side. The ladies did not want to break their contract with the World Padel Tour, which will only end on December 31, 2023. As a result, they do not (yet) play the tournaments organized by Premier Padel and the QSI company, with the support of the International Federation of padel.

Setpoint Events SA has been claiming since last March that players playing on another circuit, in this case that of Premier Padel, are subject to two fines of 12,5 million.

Last May, le World Padel Tour also sued the FIP, QSI and the players' association for unfair competition !

WPTR legal actions are ongoing against players. The first of these, conducted against Miguel Oliveira, ended in failure last April.

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

On the same subject