Tennis stars side with Rafael Nadal over key decision against Novak Djokovic

Rafael Nadal
French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 10, 2018 Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates with ball boys, ball girls and the trophy after winning the final against Austria's Dominic Thiem. Reuters

Tennis stars have come in support of Rafael Nadal's earlier stand to continue with Chris Kermode as the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) chairman.

The ATP confirmed on Thursday that Chris Kermode will not continue as the Executive Chairman and President beyond his term until the end of 2019.

Tennis legend Roger Federer said he will not involve himself in the politics of the sport. Former world number one Rafael Nadal said he will side with the Swiss tennis ace. Rafael Nadal said he is not a fan of changing the leadership at the top because it was not good for the long term future of tennis.

 Novak Djokovic of Serbia holds up the trophy during the trophy awarding ceremony after the men's singles final match between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Rafael Nadal of Spain at 2019 Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Bai Xu
Novak Djokovic of Serbia holds up the trophy during the trophy awarding ceremony after the men's singles final match between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Rafael Nadal of Spain at 2019 Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 27, 2019. (Xinhua/Bai Xue/IANS) Xinhua

World number one Novak Djokovic is the president of Players Council. The 2019 Australian Open winner wanted Chris Kermode to be ousted by the end of this year. Luckily for him, it has happened and several tennis stars are unhappy with the ATP's decision to not allow Chris Kermode continue as the chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals.

This is what Stan Wawrinka had to say, as reported by Tennis.com. He said, "That's, I would say, the funny part. I also read what player representatives said right now. It's not like there is another option yet, or at least I don't know. I'm not in the council, I'm not in the board, so I don't know everything. I don't know everything that's happening. I just know from the players' side from what I know."

"So, for me, I think it's not the right decision to make, but again, I'm not in the council, so I cannot talk because they know more things than I do. I also know that there is some people in the board that shouldn't be in the board," he said, though declining to give any specific names."

This is what Nicolas Mahut said to Tennis.com. "We're sad. was supporting [Kermode] because he was doing a good job. We're not in the meetings. We're going with the decision of the board."

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic seems delighted there has been a change in the leadership, meaning tennis stars and siding with Rafael Nadal over this key decision against Novak Djokovic.

"It was decided that it's time for us to look into new leadership on the tour. When you have three votes of the player board and three votes of the tournament board, the president is a tiebreaker in many voting circumstances. And in most of the cases, there is a conflict of interest. That is something I feel like, as a group, we need to address," Djokovic said, as reported by Express.

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