{"id":657981,"date":"2026-05-08T15:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657981\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:34:10","slug":"boycott-a-slam-tough-to-say-but-somewhere-we-need-to-start-sinner-and-djokovic-say-the-word-but-the-threat-lacks-substance-at-this-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657981\/","title":{"rendered":"Boycott a Slam? \u201cTough to say, but somewhere we need to start\u201d: Sinner and Djokovic say the word but the threat lacks substance at this stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looked, for a few hours, like a turning point. On Thursday afternoon at the Foro Italico, two press conferences two hours apart put the boycott question to the two most important men in the sport. Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff have publicly raised<\/a> the prospect in recent weeks. Now the world number one and the best performer of all time, founder of the PTPA, were being asked, on the same day, whether they would do the thing.<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner went first. The careful, neutral tone he has spent two years cultivating on tour politics gave way to something sharper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grand Slams, they are the best and the most important tournaments we have in our schedule,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s more about respect, you know? Because I think we give much more than what we are getting back. It\u2019s not only for the top players; it\u2019s for all of us players. From men\u2019s and women\u2019s side, we are very, very equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner : \u201cNot even close to a conclusion\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on, with unusual specificity, to describe the existing channel that has produced nothing. \u201cThe top 10 men, top 10 women, we wrote a letter. It\u2019s not nice that after one year we are not even close to a conclusion of what we would like to have. Talking about other sports, if the top athletes send important letters, I truly believe within 48 hours you have not only a response but also a meeting. Of course we talk about money. The most important is respect, and we just don\u2019t feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the question that mattered. Would Sinner himself sit out a major?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to say. I cannot predict the future. But somewhere we need to start. I understand other players not playing. I\u2019m definitely not the only one. It\u2019s the first time I feel like the players are all in the same scenario and the same point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Djokovic : \u201cI\u2019ve said it many times\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner named the next pressure points. \u201cI think in the next couple of weeks we know also the prize money we\u2019re going to have at Wimbledon. We truly hope it\u2019s going to be better. Then, of course, US Open.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two hours later, Novak Djokovic was put the same question. He has been answering versions of it for a decade. He did not pretend otherwise, even though he retired from the PTPA in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ve been around the tour long enough to remember the times when I was president of the council, when I was also forming the PTPA, which is now six years ago,\u201d Djokovic said. \u201cYou guys know my position on that. I\u2019ve said it many times. I don\u2019t need to talk about that too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

He praised the new generation taking up the cause. \u201cI\u2019m glad that there is willingness from the leaders of our sport, like Sabalenka, to really step up and really understand the dynamics of how the tennis politics works. That\u2019s true leadership for me, and I salute that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then a journalist asked him directly whether he felt part of this movement, or was watching from the side. Djokovic gave the most quietly remarkable answer of the day.<\/p>\n

My position is very clear: I support the players and always will support the stronger player position in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am watching more from the side, to be honest. I haven\u2019t been part of those meetings and conversations. But my position is very clear: I support the players and always will support the stronger player position in the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching from the side. The man who founded the PTPA, who paid for a decade in negative headlines that he made a point of recalling on Thursday \u2014 \u201cyou guys like to put headlines of \u2018the Grand Slam winner gets so-and-so, never more in history’\u201d \u2014 has stepped out of the room while a new generation considers the kind of action he spent his career arguing for.<\/p>\n

He was generous about why this is hard. \u201cThe players within the player council have really absolutely no power. I\u2019ve been there. I was president of the council. The whole structure is conceptualised in a certain way where players are just not able to get what they want. That\u2019s why the top players come together and try to negotiate directly with the Slams. I think that\u2019s the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A boycott needs three things to be credible: a target, a deadline, and a top-player willing to say \u201cI will not play.\u201d None of those existed on Thursday. The letter is real<\/a>. Sabalenka and Gauff using the word in public is real. But the world number one would not commit, and the man who has been making this argument for ten years was explicit that he is no longer the one making it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looked, for a few hours, like a turning point. On Thursday afternoon at the Foro Italico, two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-657981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}