Players raise fears of French Open boycott<\/a><\/p>\nThe world’s leading tennis players do not feel respected, Jannik Sinner says, as fears grow of the French Open being boycotted.<\/p>\n
“It’s crazy. It’s an insane difference. Obviously they’re different sports. They’re run differently,” Pegula said, comparing tennis to the NFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“But tennis has been a very old-school sport. I think it’s one of the things that needs to change. Sometimes change is good. Sometimes that means fighting for things.”<\/p>\n
The same group of players sent a letter a year ago to the heads of the four grand slams seeking more prize money and a greater say in decision-making. Wimbledon increased its 2025 total pot by 7 per cent, the US Open by 20 per cent and the Australian Open this past January by 16 per cent.<\/p>\n
Still, the players say the grand slams don’t match the rate of 22 per cent at regular ATP and WTA Tour events.<\/p>\n
“The slams have kind of just gotten away with paying not that much because we’re a very individual sport,” Pegula said.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to get players to come together. We’re not on a salary, [whereas] football players or basketball players can afford not to play.”<\/p>\n
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Jessica Pegula is in good form on clay. (Getty Images: Clive Brunskill)<\/p>\n
Organisers at the French Open, which starts in less than two weeks, have not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Wimbledon is due to announce its prize money next month and Pegula said the players have not had a response from the All England Club.<\/p>\n
“We’re just going to kind of continue to talk amongst ourselves,” she said.<\/p>\n
One of the big issues affecting tennis governance is that there are seven organising bodies: The four grand slams, the ATP, the WTA and the International Tennis Federation.<\/p>\n
“That’s what makes it so hard is that our sport is super fragmented. Hard to get everybody on the same page,” Pegula said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That’s why it’s been huge to actually have the top 10 men and women really come together. I’m hoping that will get the slams’ attention.”<\/p>\n
Pegula advances in Rome, misses Sabres Stanley Cup run![\"Jessica](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/40a0e100e5c2c664b05467fcff00555f.jpeg\")
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Jessica Pegula says she has missed the Buffalo Sabres’ Stanley Cup run. (Getty Images: Robert Prange)<\/p>\n
Before she gets to Paris, Pegula has been perfecting her clay-court game at the Italian Open, where she reached the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 win over Anastasia Potapova on Monday. She routed Rebeka Masarova 6-0, 6-0 in the previous round.<\/p>\n
Pegula will next face three-time Rome champion Iga \u015awi\u0105tek, who beat four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-1.<\/p>\n
ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\nABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n
In between her matches and prize money activist duties, Pegula has been struggling to watch the Sabres’ run to the play-offs for the first time in 15 years due to the time difference between the US and Europe.<\/p>\n
The Montreal Canadiens beat the Sabres 6-2 in Game 3 on Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in their second-round play-off series.<\/p>\n
“My gosh, I am so upset that I have not been able to see any of the games,” Pegula said.<\/p>\n
“I would give anything to just be at a play-off game \u2026 I love it so much. It’s my favourite thing.”<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talk of a boycott from top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner has grabbed attention. Behind the scenes, it’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,29086,1805,296752,27488,593,575,85,747],"class_list":["post-665152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boycott","tag-french-open","tag-italian-open","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-nfl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665152","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=665152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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