Prominent tennis professionals criticize the prize money at the Grand Slams – and are putting a lot of pressure on the organizers before the French Open.
Aryna Sabalenka has taken the dispute over prize money at the Grand Slams to the next level. “I think there will be a boycott at some point,” said the tennis world number one on Wednesday in Rome. This increased the pressure on the organizers with a view to the French Open, which begins on May 24th.
“We run the show. Without us there would be no tournaments, without us there would be no entertainment. I feel like we definitely deserve a bigger share”said Sabalenka before the start of the WTA tournament in Rome.
Paris defending champion Coco Gauff also spoke about a possible boycott: “If everyone pulls together and works together, then I can imagine it 100 percent.” Gauff emphasized that she was not concerned about herself, but rather about the situation of the professionals in the lower areas of the world rankings.
Swiatek: Boycott “a bit extreme”
Iga Swiatek was a little more defensive. She considers a boycott of tournaments “somewhat extreme”, said the four-time French Open winner from Poland. The most important thing is good communication and discussions with the umbrella organizations: “Hopefully there will be an opportunity for such meetings before Roland Garros and we’ll see how they go.”
“Deep disappointment” about the new prize money list
The long-known discussion flared up massively shortly before the start of the French Open. In the spring of last year, prominent players on the ATP and WTA tours wrote together to the organizers of the four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) calling for a change in the way they deal with professionals.
Now that the planned prize money for Roland Garros has become public, the next, apparently more stringent round is on. The players expressed their opinion in a letter to the organizing French tennis association FFT “deep disappointment” about the numbers.
Instead of approaching the required level of 22 percent of tournament revenue, their share remains below 15 percent. Far too little, say the top stars, who also look at the higher comparative values in US sports, among others.
French Tennis Federation refers to increases
There’s really a lot of money at stake in the majors, the four highlights of each season. According to the players’ website, the French Open generated 395 million euros last year. They announced 61.7 million euros in prize money for 2026, and the winners of the individual competitions for men and women will each receive 2.8 million euros.
The French Tennis Federation emphasized that bonuses have increased by around 45 percent since 2019 and that this year a significant part of the increase will deliberately benefit the professionals who are eliminated in the early rounds of the main draw and qualification. In addition, large sums of money are being invested in the infrastructure and the development of tennis.
Prominent critics
At the same time it signaled Federation Francaise de Tennis their constant willingness to talk, which the professionals will probably take advantage of. Because there seems to be great dissatisfaction, including among other prominent signatories of the protest letter such as Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.
They also complained that they had not received an adequate response to other issues raised, such as a payment into a social fund and greater participation by professionals.
