{"id":657152,"date":"2026-05-21T21:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657152\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:05:09","slug":"french-open-wont-budge-on-this-years-prize-money-despite-players-plans-for-media-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657152\/","title":{"rendered":"French Open won’t budge on this year’s prize money despite players’ plans for media protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

There won\u2019t be a change in prize money for this year\u2019s French Open<\/a>, tournament director Am\u00e9lie Mauresmo said on Thursday, according to The Associated Press<\/a>, one day before some of tennis\u2019 biggest stars plan to stage a media protest to express their frustration about the cut players are currently receiving at Grand Slams.<\/p>\n

Mauresmo was asked directly if there\u2019s a chance prize money would change this year, per the AP. Her response was reportedly clear.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo, we are not going to change anything,\u201d the former Australian Open and Wimbledon champion said, according to the AP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to initiate discussions, and that is what everyone wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Friday at Roland-Garros, a meeting between tournament organizers, players and their representatives is expected to take place. Also that day, the customary pre-tournament media day will be held, only this time several players are reportedly intending to purposely limit their press availability in an act of defiance.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been reported that the protest will unfold in a symbolic 15-minute window, with Bounces<\/a> reporting, according to The Athletic<\/a>, that protest-participating players have now strategized to make themselves available for just 10 minutes of news conference. The collective 15 minutes is symbolic, as it represents the 15% of revenue, on average, Grand Slams allocate to prize money, per The Guardian<\/a>, which also reported Wednesday that, during the tournament, players are planning to only take part in contractually obligated flash interviews with rights holders after matches. It\u2019s reportedly thought that indulging the tournament in that regard will make players unsusceptible to fines.<\/p>\n

The players leading this labor movement are angling for players\u2019 earnings to make up 22% of the Grand Slam prize pool, a share that\u2019s akin to what they garner in joint ATP and WTA Tour events.<\/p>\n

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The 2026 French Open will produce $72.3 million in prize money, a 9.5% increase from last year\u2019s tournament at Roland-Garros, according to The Athletic.<\/a> While prize pools are growing larger at Grand Slams, they still aren\u2019t accounting for the proportion of revenue the players feel they deserve.<\/p>\n

Similar to the meeting poised to occur on Friday at Roland-Garros, talks with US Open and Wimbledon representatives are in line to happen as the French Open plays on, The Athletic reported.<\/p>\n

Many players \u2014 including Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff \u2014 have been pushing for not only a sizable increase in prize money but also improved player welfare and pension provisions and more influence on Grand Slam tournament schedules.<\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s Italian Open, the Masters 1000 tournament that leads up to the French Open, Sabalenka floated the idea of a full-fledged boycott of a Grand Slam<\/a>. Gauff, notably, said she could get behind that if players can \u201ccollectively agree.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, it seems like players are sticking to less drastic measures to get their point across.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There won\u2019t be a change in prize money for this year\u2019s French Open, tournament director Am\u00e9lie Mauresmo said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[261611,12083,2073,283192,4039,52348,37213,99,428,38129],"class_list":["post-657152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-amelie-mauresmo","tag-australian-open","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-franco-arland","tag-french-open","tag-grand-slams","tag-prize-money","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-the-athletic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}