"He didn't start this for himself, he did it for legacy reasons" - Billionaire Bill Ackman on Djokovic's PTPA

Billionaire Bill Ackman thinks that Djokovic did not need to start the PTPA but he did it for what he described as 'legacy reasons'.

Ackman recently become invovled with tennis when he became an investor and advisor for the PTPA. The organization was formed by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil after both of them grew disillusioned with the way the ATP handled things.

He explained his reasons for joining the PTPA as:

"So about 15, 16 months ago, Novak Djokovic and a good friend of mine, Rebecca Macdonald met and she called and said look, Novak and Vasek are putting together something to help the players, maybe you can help, and I viewed this as a purely philanthropic thing. I love tennis, and I'm super passionate about the game and I understood the plight of the player. I actually backed a guy, Matija Pecotic."

And continued:

"He wanted to go on the tour, but the economics make it impossible unless you have a trust fund or a backer, and I was like, fine, I'll back you. He spent about $350,000 a year, travel, hotel, coach, couldn't afford a physio but from all that he went from nothing to 200 in the world and he was fastest ever, so i thought, okay, i've really got something here, and then he got injured. During that entire period, he might have made $20,000 in prize money. The reality is, if you're not hundred in the world or better, you lose money on the tour, you make less than minimum wage."

On Djokovic, Ackman said:

"Actually, Novak deserves credit for setting up the ptpa he stepped back after I got involved and Pospisil has been leading the charge for the PTPA. But what I quickly realized is we wouldn't make this organization work as a philanthropic organization. Novak is not an investor in the entity, in fact, we're returning the capital to people (players) who put up capital to start the PTPA. This is for all of the players. Novak Djokovic needs this organization the least, he didn't start this for himself, he did it for legacy reasons, he knows about how hard it is."