Professional Tennis and Restraint of Trade in the English Common Law

The application of the common law doctrine of restraint of trade in the field of professional tennis suggests that in order for the restraint, contractual or otherwise, to be deemed unenforceable, it must be unreasonable and not justified by public policy and the parties' interests. Given that tennis is an individual sport where top-ranked athletes eam considerable profit from tournament prizes and image rights, certain contractual terms in agency representation agreements may equally constitute unenforceable restraints where, despite otherwise lucrative contracts engineered by the agent, the player has lost trust in the agent. The same is also true when the player signed their contract at a very young age. Because of the long contract duration, the player is effectively denied the opportunity to explore other opportunities, irrespective of profits, with other agents.