The PTPA’s emergency motion for a court intervention into the French Open and Wimbledon rejecting applications for tournament credentials was denied, according to a court filing published Friday. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett wrote, however, that despite the denial of the motion, the French Tennis Federation and All England Lawn Tennis Club “are cautioned that the Court may consider their undisputedly retaliatory conduct in assessing any similar motions in the future.” Garnett is overseeing the PTPA’s antitrust lawsuit against the ATP, WTA, USTA, FFT and AELTC in N.Y.; the PTPA had alleged that the FFT and AELTC -- organizers of the French Open and Wimbledon, respectively -- denied their representatives accreditation for the events as an act of “retaliatory conduct” for the suit.
In response to the judge’s decision Thursday evening, the PTPA’s former executive director Ahmad Nassar posted on X that the FFT and AELTC are “losing the long game.” The defendants’ motions to dismiss the case or compel arbitration are pending.
“The FFT and AELTC may have avoided an order today, but read what the Judge actually said: she called the exclusion ‘petty’ and warned the tournaments against keeping it up. She strongly encouraged them to reconsider denying credentials,” Nassar wrote. “What an astonishingly bad move to cite the broader antitrust lawsuit as the reason to deny credentials. The Judge is weighing whether that very lawsuit proceeds, with pending motions to dismiss before the court. Motions the Judge indicated today she expects to rule on soon.”
