Four ATP members, including Jamie Murray, resign in wake of Justin Gimelstob fallout

The shadow of disgraced tennis administrator Justin Gimelstob continues to hang over the game, after another turbulent weekend saw the resignation of four members of the ATP player council – including Britain’s top doubles player Jamie Murray.

The resignations followed an acrimonious seven-hour meeting on Friday, which was intended to appoint an interim players’ representative to the ATP board as a replacement for Gimelstob – who stepped down on May 1 after being found guilty of assault the previous month. The ten-man council found themselves locked at 5-5 over the two candidates: former world No. 6 Nicolas Lapentti and former ATP executive Weller Evans.

Telegraph Sport understands that Gimelstob flew to London last week, shortly ahead of the tied vote, which raises questions about his level of ongoing involvement in the controversy. In the end, the decision was sent back to the other players’ representatives on the ATP board – Alex Inglot and David Egdes – who plumped for Evans, a man who in 2012 described Gimelstob as “the conscience of the sport”.

The five player-council members supporting Evans’s candidature – who include world No. 1 Novak Djokovic – are perceived to be supporting a confrontational approach to improving players’ pay. This could include the formation of a union and a possible boycott of tournaments which do not emulate the model of American sports organisations like the NBA and NFL by returning close to half their revenues into the players’ pockets.

Evans was part of the ATP executive in 2003, the year that the organisation’s then chief executive Mark Miles tried to instigate a boycott of the grand slams. The slams used anti-trust law to successfully block the move