{"id":598960,"date":"2026-05-23T01:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/598960\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T01:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:05:09","slug":"as-world-no-1-i-have-to-stand-up-and-fight-sabalenka-leads-players-in-grand-slam-protest-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/598960\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018As world No 1, I have to stand up and fight\u2019: Sabalenka leads players in grand slam protest | French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka insisted the player push for a greater financial contribution<\/a> from the grand slams is primarily focused on improving the welfare of lower-ranked players as the world\u2019s elite advanced with their eve-of-tournament protest at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the whole point here, it\u2019s not about me,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the players who are lower in the ranking, who are suffering. It\u2019s not easy to live in this tennis world with that percentage that we are earning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the world No 1, I feel like I have to stand up and to fight for those players, for lower-level players, for players who are coming back after injuries, the upcoming generation. I feel like our point is pretty clear and pretty fair to everyone. That\u2019s what we are all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top players opted to escalate their frustrations with the grand slams during media day at Roland Garros by refusing to participate in all but the mandatory media interviews.<\/p>\n

Players usually allocate 60-90 minutes of their time for various interviews with broadcasters and written press, photoshoots and social media games, but the players planned to cap their media duties at 15 minutes, a symbolic figure chosen to represent the roughly 15% of average revenue allocated to player prize money by the grand slams. They agreed to split their time between a 10-minute press conference and a five-minute interview with the host broadcaster, their two mandatory duties.<\/p>\n

A number of top players have been in dispute with the grand slam tournaments for over a year after sending a signed letter requesting the grand slams to allocate more of their tournament revenues to prize money, contribute to player welfare initiatives, such as a pension, and to create a grand slam player council so that the players have a greater say in the event.<\/p>\n

The participants included the No 1s Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner, plus the top-10 players Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz.<\/p>\n

Andrey Rublev, the men\u2019s world No 13 and a member of the association of tennis players\u2019 (ATP) advisory council, said: \u201cIt\u2019s not only about the money and stuff like that. There are many aspects. They don\u2019t hear you. They don\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to give you an example: when you send the mail, no one responds to official mail for months. It\u2019s like, \u2018Come on, guys.\u2019 We are together, or you completely don\u2019t care that much that you cannot even communicate.\u201d There were no dramatic walkouts or players abruptly ending their press conferences mid-sentence. Many certainly spent more than 10 minutes in their press conferences and 15 minutes overall.<\/p>\n

However, throughout the day, the players navigated these unique circumstances in different ways. Despite the moderator calling an end to Medvedev\u2019s press conference, a dogged Russian-language journalist managed to squeeze in two more questions. Medvedev graciously answered, stretching his press conference past the 15-minute mark.<\/p>\n

Daniil Medvedev, who said the players were \u2018united\u2019 in their cause, went slightly over the protest-planned time after answering a question from a Russian-language journalist. Photograph: Yoan Valat\/EPA<\/p>\n

Gauff, meanwhile, took a more direct approach. She discreetly put her phone down on the table in front of her, which was not visible to her audience, and she started a timer before fielding her first question. Nine minutes in, after the moderator asked for any further questions, Gauff looked down at the table: \u201cI have about, like, one minute left,\u201d she said, laughing. Asked whether she had been timing the press conference, Gauff responded with further laughter: \u201cYes, I\u2019ve got to be strict,\u201d she said. At the 10-minute mark, she personally excused herself from the press conference.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of her press conference, Sabalenka glanced over to her agent on the side of the room, who held up one finger while mouthing \u201cone more question\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian then assumed the role of moderator, marking an end to the interview herself. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s time for national language, and thank you so much for being here, for asking questions,\u201d she said. \u201cAs I said a thousand times today, I have huge respect [for you], but we know what\u2019s happening here, so thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most high-profile omission from the protests was Novak Djokovic, who chose not to participate. The winner of 24 grand slams has been part of various player-power initiatives over the years, both in his time as the ATP council president and founder of the PTPA (Professional Tennis<\/a> Players Association), but he has recused himself from these initiatives late in his career.<\/p>\n

Still, Djokovic, who turned 39 on Friday, said he remains on the side of the players and that tennis should learn from the fractured nature of golf, with the emergence of the LIV tour: \u201cLet\u2019s try to be a bit more united and have a unifying voice into finding better structure and a better future for our sport, because now is the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medvedev described this as the most unified he had seen the top players. \u201cIt\u2019s good, because it\u2019s probably the first time, at least in my span on the tour, where players are kind of really united,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka insisted the player push for a greater financial contribution from the grand slams is primarily focused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-598960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}