\n It is the biggest increase in the tournament\u2019s history, but with revenue also rising, players believe they deserve a higher proportion of the slams\u2019 income, with the ultimate goal of pushing above 20 per cent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gauff was part of a meeting between leading players and representatives of the major tournaments at Roland Garros last spring, and the American expects more dialogue this year, with a collective frustration that more progress has not been made.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFrom my understanding, they obviously increased the prize money this year,\u201d she said. \u201cThe percentage is still, of revenue comparison, not where we would like it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think there\u2019s still further conversations that have to be had, not just with the Australian Open but with all the slams. We have player representatives who have been working really hard to do that a lot for us because we can\u2019t do it, be in person, as often.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe collective feeling is that, yes, there\u2019s been progress, but I still think it\u2019s not where we would like to see it. We are grateful for the progress that has been made.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI imagine that there will be continually more meetings. I think no one wants this conversation to be continuing for years and years. So I would imagine that we would continue to have those conversations and maybe more pressure being applied with especially the top 10.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The players are also calling for the slams to contribute to player welfare benefits, while they would like a seat at the table to influence issues such as scheduling.\n<\/p>\n
\n Reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys said: \u201cI think it\u2019s really important. We obviously give a lot of ourselves to this sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey (the slams), being the highest revenue holders, I think it absolutely makes sense. As we are the product, it makes sense for us to be partners.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think that it has been the most productive conversations that we\u2019ve ever had, which leads me to be carefully optimistic, I think, for the future.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n American Keys is back at the scene of her greatest triumph after she defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka last January to claim her maiden grand slam title a few weeks before her 30th birthday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cEveryone keeps asking me how my life has changed,\u201d she said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t changed that much, other than I have a really cool trophy at home.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have a lot of people who come up to me and tell me winning made them cry. I think, for me, the biggest thing that I feel like as a huge takeaway is I was able to do that. I don\u2019t think very often in sport you see that you have the ability to make people cry happy tears.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m really just trying to soak in all of the really cool, fun parts, like walking in and seeing a picture of me holding the trophy. I could never have dreamed of that happening.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m sure going on court, I\u2019m going to be very nervous, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever walked on court in the first round of a grand slam and not been nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the biggest increase in the tournament\u2019s history, but with revenue also rising, players believe they deserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-412849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}