Leading players at Wimbledon “will return to normal media duties” beginning Monday following “constructive meetings” with the All England Club. GETTY IMAGES
Leading players at Wimbledon “will return to normal media duties” beginning Monday after ending their prize money protest following “constructive meetings” with the All England Club. Several star players had “planned to limit their contractual media commitments to a symbolic 15 minutes per match day during the first week of the tournament,” with the 15 minutes referring “to their prize money as a percentage of overall tournament revenue.” Wimbledon earlier this month unveiled the biggest ever uplift in prize money and increased the overall prize pool by 20%. But the players “estimated that their share of Wimbledon’s projected revenues for 2026” is 14.4% and said that ratio “is less than their share from 10 years ago.” ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner, WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and WTA No. 7 Coco Gauff all “ timed their press conferences on Saturday, intending to keep them under 10 minutes.” But “not all players joined in, suggesting a split within the leading stars” (London INDEPENDENT, 6/29).