{"id":684194,"date":"2026-05-21T13:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/684194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:19:10","slug":"tennis-stars-will-hold-media-protest-at-french-open-over-grand-slam-prize-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/684194\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis stars will hold media protest at French Open over Grand Slam prize money"},"content":{"rendered":"

The group of leading tennis players pushing for increased prize money<\/a> and other reforms at the Grand Slams<\/a> will stage a media protest at the French Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Italian Open earlier this month, stars like Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff suggested that players could boycott one of the four biggest events in tennis<\/a>. At Roland Garros, where the second Grand Slam of the year starts Sunday, May 24, players will not go to those lengths, but they will walk out of their pre-tournament news conferences after 15 minutes, a source briefed on the group\u2019s plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Players across the draw will also refuse interviews with French Open media and the tournament\u2019s primary rightsholders, TNT Sports and Eurosport. They will only conduct flash interviews with broadcasters after matches in order to avoid being fined, as first reported by The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response to the players\u2019 plans, a French Tennis Federation (FFT) spokesperson said via text message Wednesday that: \u201cWe regret the players\u2019 decision, which impacts all of the tournament\u2019s stakeholders: the media, broadcasters, the FFT and the entire tennis community, all of whom follow each edition of Roland-Garros with great enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FFT recognises the importance of the players\u2019 contribution to the tournament\u2019s success, and wishes to maintain close ties with them. In early May, it proposed a meeting that will take place on Friday 22 May with some of their representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FFT is ready to engage in direct and constructive dialogue on governance issues, with a view to giving players a greater say in decision-making, contributing to players\u2019 welfare and evolutions in the value-sharing model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those talks are planned between the group and the FFT president, Gilles Moretton, as well as French Open tournament director, Am\u00e9lie Mauresmo. Larry Scott, a former ATP Tour player and ex-WTA chief executive, who is advising the group, is expected to be in Paris for the talks, the source briefed on the group\u2019s plans said.<\/p>\n

Meetings with Wimbledon and US Open representatives are expected to take place later in the tournament. Spokespeople for both events did not immediately respond to requests for comment but on Thursday, an All England Club spokesperson said via email: \u201cOur position continues to be that we are always open to having constructive discussions. We have been in regular dialogue with the players and their representatives to hear their feedback and we look forward to continuing those conversations at Roland Garros.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Coco<\/p>\n

\n Gauff was among those who suggested players could boycott the Slams (Geoff Burke-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

The 15-minute timing represents the fact that the Grand Slams allocate on average 15 percent of revenues to prize money, a source briefed on the group\u2019s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships said Thursday. The top-10 men\u2019s and women\u2019s players leading this push for reform want that figure to rise to 22 percent, in line with joint ATP and WTA Tour events.<\/p>\n

Many U.S. team sports set an even higher mark, with players in the NFL, NBA and MLB receiving close to 50 percent of league revenues, but those finances are subject to collective bargaining agreements which tennis players, who are effectively independent contractors, cannot establish.<\/p>\n

The French Open\u2019s 2026 prize pool is up by 9.5 percent from 2025, to a total of $72.3 million. This will come in at 15 percent of its projected revenue, according to the group\u2019s estimates.<\/p>\n

The three other majors all increased their prize money at their most recent editions. The Australian Open delivered a 16 percent increase, to $75 million; the U.S. Open\u2019s 21 percent increase brought its prize pool to a record $85 million, and Wimbledon offered $72.6 million in 2025, up seven percent from its 2024 pot, but all of those figures came in at less than 22 percent of each tournament\u2019s respective revenues.<\/p>\n

This is the latest attempt by the group to put pressure on the four Grand Slams, following two letters it sent to the majors last year. They were signed by the most prominent players on the WTA and ATP Tours, including Iga \u015awi\u0105tek, Carlos Alcaraz, Sabalenka, Gauff and Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n

As well as prize money changes, the group is pushing for more contributions to player welfare and greater consultation and representation about the Grand Slams\u2019 plans, which include seeking the formation of a Grand Slam Player Council.<\/p>\n

The French Open qualifying event is already underway, ahead of the main draws starting Sunday. The principal pre-tournament media day will be held Friday, with any outstanding players doing their pre-event press over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u2018You don\u2019t need a formal boycott for effective, collective action\u2019<\/p>\n

Analysis from senior tennis writer Ava Wallace<\/p>\n

Take note, Grand Slams. It turns out tennis players can get organized, if they want to \u2014 and fast.<\/p>\n

While it would be incredibly difficult for the top players to actually boycott a Grand Slam for several reasons, they don\u2019t need a formal boycott for effective collective action.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, walking out on media day press conferences after 15 minutes is meaningful. It\u2019s a smart bit of PR to keep that number \u2014 15 percent of Grand Slam tournament revenue \u2014 in people\u2019s minds, and the anecdotes and information players give at these opening-day news conferences trickle down through the media ecosystem at the majors.<\/p>\n

Written press uses that information, yes, but so do broadcasters calling the matches, rights holders ginning up content for TV and social media and the tournaments themselves.<\/p>\n

As for the length of the press conferences, there are several tight-lipped players reporters could only dream of speaking to for 15 minutes, but there are just as many who can go long. With some big-name players, that cutoff will matter.<\/p>\n

That the players who aren\u2019t requested for opening day press conferences will reportedly refuse to conduct \u201cadditional interviews\u201d with broadcast rights holders is the main indication of how seriously players are taking this issue. Any protest that hits a tournament\u2019s media deals is an effective one.<\/p>\n

While there are many players who would be happy to skip media day altogether, most players also have some understanding that their personal brands are tied not just to their tennis and their wins but to maximizing their visibility during four two-week stretches per year. That there are players who have agreed to be on TV just a little bit less (depending on how players define \u201cadditional\u201d interviews, that is) is striking.<\/p>\n

At the Italian Open two weeks ago, some players who were asked for their thoughts on a boycott said they hadn\u2019t even heard about such a thing. To go from that, to such a striking and unified piece of collective action in such a short period of time, is significant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The group of leading tennis players pushing for increased prize money and other reforms at the Grand Slams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,569,82,575,593],"class_list":["post-684194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684194","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=684194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}