"Obviously the last year it's kind of got political, people out for their own gains I think, a few vendettas perhaps out there as well. For me, we're not accomplishing anything here"
Saturday 6 July 2019 13:50, UK
Jamie Murray said "vendettas" and "people out for their own gains" prompted him to resign from the ATP Player Council.
Murray was one of four people, along with fellow players Robin Haase and Sergiy Stakhovsky and coach Dani Vallverdu, to stand down after a seven-hour meeting on Friday evening.
It was the latest political flash-point in a turbulent year, with the ousting of executive chairman and president Chris Kermode in March followed by the eventual resignation of board member Justin Gimelstob after he pleaded no contest to a charge of battery in a California court.
The council has been split on a number of issues, with president Novak Djokovic on one side and Murray, Haase and Stakhovsky among those taking issue with the direction in which things are heading.
Murray, who had been a council member for three years, said: "The first two years I really enjoyed, felt like I was able to accomplish quite a lot of things.
"Obviously the last year it's kind of got political, people out for their own gains I think, a few vendettas perhaps out there as well. For me, we're not accomplishing anything here.
"I was kind of fed up sitting in these six-, seven-hour meetings and coming out of it and we're not talking about the tennis, we're not talking about the tour. I was like, 'I'm not going to waste my time with that any more'.
"I think there's a few people out there in various positions, or not in positions, that are kind of trying to grab power and kind of push their own agendas, which personally I don't believe in that route and it's not something I really want to be attached to.
"There's a lot of good people out there that want the best for tennis but it seems to me that there's a small minority that maybe disagree with things."
American Gimelstob had initially held on to his post as a player representative but, by not contesting the charge and therefore accepting guilt, his position eventually became untenable, with Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka among those to speak out.
Gimelstob is particularly close to Djokovic, who was put in an uncomfortable position in his post-match press conference on Wednesday when he admitted he had not read the victim impact statements in the case.
The world No 1 said he would read them but refused to revisit the topic after his third-round win over Hubert Hurkacz.
Jamie Murray said: "Justin's done a lot of good things for the players.
"I've seen how hard he worked for the guys and he got a lot of players into action and created awareness for them about they could be earning more money and that the tournaments could be potentially giving more money but I think there's other stuff as well that I don't agree with. I just don't want to be a part of that."
