Novak Djokovic served up chocolate to the media at his Australian Open press conference.
Djokovic delivered a dose of surprise to his peers asserting players deserve a bigger piece of the prize money pie.
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The Daily Mail's Mike Dickson reports Djokovic "stunned" ATP colleagues at the annual player meeting on Friday night before the tournament advocating players should earn more prize money and suggesting they consider forming their own player union to leverage higher earnings.
The 12-time Grand Slam champion stood up at the meeting, mandatory for active players, and reportedly asked all non-players, including ATP chief executive Chris Kermode and other ATP board members, first leave the room so he could address players only.
Then "Djokovic made a lengthy speech in which he called for the players to form their own union to try to battle for higher levels of financial reward at all tournaments, including Wimbledon," The Daily Mail reports.
Djokovic introduced an Australian attorney to the stage who discussed the process of establishing a players-only union that would fight for the players interests. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were among the players reportedly in attendance.
"People were shocked," one player who attended the meeting told The Daily Mail. "There may have been a few who knew about this, but most didn’t."
The 30-year-old Djokovic, who made history as the first ATP player to eclipse the $100 million prize earning mark in June of 2016, has earned a record $109 million in prize money and lives in the tax haven of Monte Carlo.
World No. 4 Alexander Zverev as well as Gilles Simon are among the players supporting Djokovic's plan, according to the Daily Mail, though the Mail reports Federer "is believed not to be a supporter of Djokovic's initiative."
It is also reported one segment of male players believes women receiving equal prize money at Grand Slams has hurt their efforts to gain a prize-money increase.
As the Australian Open began today, neither the ATP nor Djokovic had publicly commented on the report yet.
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