top players released a statement<\/a> a day earlier, saying they \u2060\u2060were set to receive prize money that would likely still be less than 15 percent of tournament revenue, well short of the 22 percent they demanded to match ATP and WTA combined 1000 events.<\/p>\nWhen asked how far players might push their demands, Sabalenka told reporters at the Italian Open: \u201cI think at some point we will boycott it, yeah. I feel like that\u2019s going to be the only way to fight for our rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see \u200c\u200chow far we can get, if it\u2019s going to take players for boycott \u2026 Some of the things, I feel like it\u2019s really unfair to the players. I think at some point it\u2019s going to get to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the world number one struck a hopeful note about ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just really hope that all of the negotiation that we are having, we at some point are going to get to the right decision, to the conclusion that everyone will be happy with,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The prize money boost still leaves Roland Garros trailing other Grand Slams.<\/p>\n
The US Open offered $90m last year, while Wimbledon paid out $72.51m and the \u2060\u2060Australian Open a record $80.06m this year.<\/p>\n
Gauff calls for players\u2019 union<\/p>\n
World number four Gauff said she could \u201c100 percent see\u201d players boycotting a Grand Slam if they took the decision together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about me. It\u2019s about the future of our sport and also the current players who aren\u2019t getting as much benefits, maybe, \u2060\u2060as even some of the top players are getting when it comes to sponsorship and things like that,\u201d Gauff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making money off court. When you look at the [players ranked] 50 to 100, 50 \u2060\u2060to 200, how much money each Slam makes, it\u2019s kind of unfortunate where the \u2060\u2060200 best tennis players are living paycheque to paycheque.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff also suggested the players must form a union, highlighting how the WNBA basketball players\u2019 union reached a tentative agreement on a collective bargaining deal earlier this year after nearly 17 months of negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust taking what the WNBA accomplished. They also have a union, so I think that helps,\u201d she \u200c\u200cadded.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the things I\u2019ve seen with other sports, usually to make massive progress and things like this, it takes a union.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said the players deserved more prize money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see the number, and you see the amount the players are receiving \u2026 I feel like the show \u200c\u200cis \u200c\u200con us. I feel like without us there wouldn\u2019t be a tournament and there wouldn\u2019t be that entertainment,\u201d Sabalenka added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like definitely we deserve to be paid more percentage. What can I say?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s tennis stars say players \u2018deserve to be paid more\u2019 in prize money at Grand Slam tournaments. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,3456,637,44,457,82,593],"class_list":["post-651656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651656","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=651656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}