ROME \u2014 Italian Open organizers are supporting tennis players who are urging a boycott unless the Grand Slam tournaments improve their prize money.<\/p>\n
Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, is taking advantage of the move as part of a campaign to turn their event into a fifth Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
The players have targeted the coming French Open for reducing players’ share of revenue to an alleged 14.3% \u2014 compared to the 22% at ATP and WTA events like the Italian Open this week.<\/p>\n
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff were among players this week threatening a boycott of the Slams if they don\u2019t start receiving more compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players have our full support,\u201d Binaghi said. \u201cIt\u2019s scandalous that we\u2019re required by the ATP to share a bigger cut of the revenues with the players and the four Grand Slams hand out a smaller cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s shameful and creates competitive disparities, too, because the four nations (that organize the Slams) have a huge amount of money to invest in their technical sectors that other nations don\u2019t have,\u201d Binaghi added. \u201cI want to blow apart this monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n
It should be noted that the Italian Open has offered less prize money for women than men for years. The total men’s prize money this year in Rome is $9.6 million while the women’s prize money is $8.3 million.<\/p>\n
But next week the women’s champion in Rome will earn 1.055 million euros \u2014 slightly more than the 1.007 million euros handed out to the men’s winner.<\/p>\n
For more than a year, Binaghi has been campaigning to turn the Italian Open into a fifth Grand Slam alongside the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open \u2014 upending a century of tennis history.<\/p>\n
With Jannik Sinner dominating at No. 1 and three other Italians in the men’s top 20 rankings \u2014 No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti; No. 12 Flavio Cobolli and No. 20 Luciano Darderi \u2014 Italian tennis is booming.<\/p>\n
Italy has won the Davis Cup for three straight years and the Billie Jean King Cup \u2014 the women\u2019s team event \u2014 for the last two years.<\/p>\n
So Binaghi, who took over the federation a quarter century ago when it was nearly bankrupt, wants to take advantage of the boom for his Grand Slam dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re experiencing a stretch of tennis in Italy that will be tough to repeat, because it also needs to be considered in comparison with the Italian soccer debacle,” Binaghi said, referring to how Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.<\/p>\n
Foro Italico running out of room<\/p>\n
Besides tradition and scheduling issues, Binaghi faces another major obstacle toward making the Italian Open bigger: There\u2019s little room for expansion at the Foro Italico.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re open to organizing a (fifth Grand Slam) anywhere in Italy \u2014 on any surface,\u201d Binaghi said.<\/p>\n
Work on a retractable roof for Campo Centrale is slated to start immediately after this year\u2019s Italian Open and be ready for the 2028 edition.<\/p>\n
Capacity for the revised stadium will increase from 10,500 to 12,400.<\/p>\n
The Italian Open is hoping to pass 400,000 ticket sales this year, while the French Open last year had a total attendance of nearly 700,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to aim big, we shouldn\u2019t focus exclusively on the Foro Italico, because there are a lot of issues here in terms of transport and temporary venues,\u201d Binaghi said.<\/p>\n
So would Binaghi be willing to move the tournament away from the Foro and its statue-lined courts?<\/p>\n
\u201cThese days, the beauty factor is just added value; it\u2019s not decisive,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people don\u2019t come to see the statues anymore. They come to see Sinner, Musetti, (Jasmine) Paolini and the other Italian players.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian Open wanted to add a mixed doubles tournament this year on the weekend before the singles events start but ATP and WTA rules wouldn\u2019t allow it because the Madrid Open ends those days.<\/p>\n
Sinner favored to end drought<\/p>\n
While Jasmine Paolini earned Italy the titles in both women\u2019s singles and doubles (with partner Sara Errani) last year, Sinner is an overwhelming favorite this year to become the first Italian man to win at the Foro since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
Apart from the Olympics, the Italian Open and French Open are the only big titles in tennis that Sinner hasn\u2019t won and his top rival, Carlos Alcaraz, is out of both tournaments due to a right wrist injury.<\/p>\n
Binaghi said if Sinner raises the trophies in Rome and Paris, \u201cmaybe I should step down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it happens,\u201d Binaghi said of Sinner winning those two titles, \u201cwe\u2019ll take stock of all the opportune and logical consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2014 Italian Open organizers are supporting tennis players who are urging a boycott unless the Grand Slam…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-653981","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\/653981","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=653981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}