Weird stuff is happening at the very top of the ATP. In fact, after a lot of controversies, it was decided that the current executive chairman and president Chris Kermode will not have his contract renewed in 2020.

It was well acknowledged that Kermode did a magnificent job during his 5 years’ tenure being also decisive in making the tournaments to raise their prize money considerably.

However, Chris was “accused” by some for not taking care too much of the players in favor of “the tournaments”  (a very delicate balance to maintain).

Did Djokovic want Kermode out?

Apparently, it was Novak Djokovic, the player council president, that really wanted Kermode out with the outcry of “the tournaments” and the players.

We need to have a plan. FEDERER

Roger is in great terms with Kermode and he tried to stop Djokovic from not renewing his contract.

During a recent interview, Roger commented

“We need to decide who the new CEO’s gonna be. The political side of the game has to do that, but I think I’d like to take an active role

. I do care and if I do care I should put in a little work as well.

I spoke to Rafa the other day for quite some time, he came to the house, and we had coffee together, and we just were really going through what is going on. I’m happy that we’re aligned and we agree that we should be talking and coming up with a proper plan.”

Why Federer is not happy with Djokovic

In a separate press conference with Swiss journalists, Roger commented

“I tried to meet Novak on the deadline (before the decisive meeting last week). Unfortunately, he had no time. That’s hard to understand for me. But it is okay. He certainly had a lot to do with the whole story. I asked him if he had time to meet me, it was so busy.

He suggested that we see each other the day after, but everything was already decided. We have not met yet, and the tournament has started.”

About Federer being back to the council

Then Roger added that he is thinking about being more involved at political level as he served as the President of the players’ council for long in the past and he knows how things are going. The Swiss commented

“I’m already interested in what’s behind it, why it happened like that. I have to think about whether I should get more involved again in the future, for the sake of the tour, or if I should just get involved a bit without going through politics.

I do not want to spew all the time, but I can not just look away and say I’m not interested. I have to get informed, and I have done that in the last few days. I also talked to Rafa. We are on the same page, that’s important to him and me.”

A bit of rift between Federer and Djokovic?