Melzer rubbishes ATP Player Council claims by Djokovic

Jurgen Melzer denied that rules were put into place overnight to keep Novak Djokovic out of the ATP Player Council

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Jurgen Melzer bid farewell to tennis on Wednesday

Veteran player Jurgen Melzer has rubbished claims by Novak Djokovic that the ATP Board decided overnight that PTPA members could not be a part of the ATP Player Council.

Just before the US Open, Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil had resigned from the ATP Player Council and formed their own player body called the Professional Tennis Players’ Association.

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Earlier in the month, however, the World No 1 said that the duo had been nominated by others to re-join the ATP Player Council. A new Council will take charge starting January next year. But the ATP shot down their nominations, saying that ATP Council members could not be a part of a rival player body too.

The Serb had said that the ATP Board had made that rule overnight to keep him and Pospisil from returning.

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“Djokovic talks about the fact that certain regulations were put in place, overnight, so that no one from the PTPA was allowed to participate in the council,” Melzer was quoted saying by French website We Love Tennis.

“This is absolute nonsense. These statutes have been in existence since 2006.

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“Moreover, it seems quite logical to me that it is impossible to be in two associations which are ‘competing.’ So I am surprised that Djokovic is surprised. And especially that he thinks that this rule developed against him overnight.”

Pospisil had also recently slammed the ATP and said they were ‘desperate’ to stay in power.

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The 39-year-old Melzer, who has been a part of the Player Council for a long time, wrapped up his career at the recently-concluded ATP Finals. The Austrian had reached a career-high of No 6 in 2010 and will retire with 17 titles.

He narrowly missed out on a fairytale finish to his tennis career, going down in the doubles finals at London’s O2 Arena. Melzer and partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin lost 2-6, 6-3, 5-10 in the title clash at the ATP Finals.

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