ATP Tour

Before Djokovic showdown, Martinez blogs about role on Player Advisory Council

The first meeting of the 2026 ATP Player Advisory Council was held Friday evening in Melbourne. Pedro Martinez, who has been a representative on the Council since 2023, wrote a blog for ATPTour.com about his experience in the position before playing Novak Djokovic in the first round of the Australian Open. 

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It's always exciting to be in Australia. For me, the Australian Open is a great tournament in terms of facilities, stadiums and how they treat the players. This year, I'm playing Novak Djokovic in the first round, so it's going to be a big match and I’m excited for it.

Before the tournament, I attended the first ATP Player Advisory Council meeting of the season. I began on the Council in 2023 and this will be my fourth season representing the players to try to make improvements for my colleagues and our sport.

I always liked business, and it's always good to be involved on the other face of the coin. I was talking with my good friend Pablo Andujar, who used to be on the Council as a player before joining the ATP Board as a Player Representative. He told me good things about being there, and I spoke with head of player relations Fernando Sanchez as well.

Before I joined the Player Advisory Council, I sometimes complained about different things, but I didn't know how they worked. Until you are on the Council, you don't always realise what is behind different decisions and all that goes into what makes our sport how it is.

The ATP really tries to improve everything on Tour for us. There are different things, like a prize-money profit-sharing formula for the ATP Masters 1000 events, which helps make the partnership between players and tournaments stronger through transparency and aligning our interests. There will also be a formula starting this year for the ATP 500 events, too.

With the 12-day Masters 1000 tournaments, they are giving players more opportunities to play and so there are more jobs. Once you are on the Player Advisory Council, it is like you are on a small team and you all learn about these things together.

It is very important to get this knowledge about how everything is working and what goes on behind the scenes to make this all happen. So often tennis players are thinking about their own situations and not about the rest of what happens on the Tour. Players sometimes see the bad side of things when they want improvement.

It is especially good for me to be able to represent the other players. I always tell them if they have something that they want to change, just to let me know and I will try to share it with my teammates on the Player Advisory Council.

I had to play a couple of Challengers in 2023 and I was able to share what I took from the experience with the group. It can even be small things like the number of balls and laundry service we are provided to things like meals for players on site.

I have more years left on the Council, so hopefully I can keep learning and also giving my vision, sharing what I live in the tournaments. If I can help a little bit from my side for the rest of the players, I feel great.

For now, I will focus on the tournament in Melbourne. I'm excited to play it on the centre court. We play this sport to compete in the biggest stadiums and hopefully I can have some chances against Novak!