Novak Djokovic might have lost the opportunity to win a record-breaking 11th Australian Open title, but the acclaimed athlete is moving towards helping professional tennis players facing legal issues. The Professional Tennis Players Association has announced that it will launch the Athlete Counsel & Equity (ACE) Program.
The initiative is meant to provide players from both the ATP and WTA Tours with free legal assistance from the firms King & Spalding LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. The announcement comes after stars such as Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek have found themselves in the middle of complex legal cases related to the use of prohibited performance enhancing substances.
Before Sinner went on to defend his Australian Open title during this year’s edition of the tournament, it was announced that the Italian player had tested positive for the use of Clostebol. But even if the drug is banned from use for tennis players, Sinner managed to prove to the International Tennis Integrity Agency that he didn’t take Clostebol on purpose.
The controversy caught the attention of the international tennis community. This included the PTPA led by Novak Djokovic. The ACE Program aims to help professional tennis players if a situation similar to Sinner’s takes place at some point in the future.
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