{"id":253365,"date":"2025-09-25T10:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253365\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T10:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T10:27:11","slug":"top-tennis-players-push-grand-slams-again-for-more-money-more-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253365\/","title":{"rendered":"Top tennis players push Grand Slams again for more money, more say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A collection of top-10 tennis players sent a second letter to the four Grand Slam tournaments<\/a> to push for a greater share of revenues \u2014 aiming to rise from the current 16% to 22% by 2030 \u2014 contributions to pension, health and maternity benefits that would go from zero to $12 million annually by that same year, and greater say via a new player council.<\/p>\n

This letter, signed by stars such as Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Jack Draper \u2014 but not, unlike the original letter sent by players to the Slam events<\/a> in March, Novak Djokovic \u2014 was dated July 30.<\/p>\n

The second letter, which was seen this week by The Associated Press, set out specific benchmarks for ways in which the sport\u2019s four most prestigious, and profitable, tournaments could offer more money and influence to the athletes.<\/p>\n

The players are working with Larry Scott as a consultant; he used to be the chairman and CEO of the WTA women\u2019s tennis tour and, later, ran the Pac-12 conference in American college sports.<\/p>\n

There have been meetings among Scott, some players and the leaders of the All England Club, which runs Wimbledon; the French Tennis Federation, which runs Roland-Garros; Tennis Australia, which runs the Australian Open; and the U.S. Tennis Association, which runs the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

All four were asked to reply to the July 30 letter, and all four did.<\/p>\n

The USTA\u2019s response, dated Aug. 18 and obtained this week by the AP, was signed by Brian Vahaly, the group\u2019s interim co-CEO<\/a>, and Stacey Allaster, the USTA\u2019s chief executive of professional tennis who just completed her last U.S. Open as tournament director.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you are aware, we have always been willing to increase compensation for players \u2014 as evidenced by the 57% growth of the U.S. Open purse over the past five years \u2014 particularly when additional collaboration on the part of the players helps to create additional revenue,\u201d Vahaly and Allaster wrote. \u201cFor example, this year\u2019s significant increase in compensation to $90 million<\/a> reflects the addition of an extra day to the main draw singles competition and the resulting contribution made by players.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Open singles champions Sabalenka and Alcaraz each received a record $5 million this month.<\/p>\n

Vahaly and Allaster also wrote that they wanted \u201cto reiterate our commitment to engaging in direct, honest and transparent discussions with the players to build a stronger future for the entire tennis ecosystem \u2014 including a healthier calendar, enhanced player consultation, and greater financial value for all involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The March letter from players to the four Slam hosts came not long after the players\u2019 association co-founded by Djokovic<\/a> \u2014 the Professional Tennis Players\u2019 Association (PTPA) \u2014 filed an antitrust lawsuit<\/a> against the women\u2019s and men\u2019s professional tours in federal court in New York. Djokovic was not listed as one of the plaintiffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That antitrust filing seeks more money for players, saying too little of the revenues end up in the athletes\u2019 hands, and lays out a series of other complaints about the way the sport is run. In May, the WTA and ATP tours jointly filed a motion to dismiss the case against them.<\/p>\n

The original case did not list the four Grand Slam tournament organizers as defendants, but they have been added, the PTPA announced this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a necessary next step to guarantee accountability from all parties,\u201d the PTPA said, \u201cand accelerate long-overdue reform across the entire tennis ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A collection of top-10 tennis players sent a second letter to the four Grand Slam tournaments to push…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2477,1578,133789,1466,2210,12111,22298,1468,1824,133790,405,403,9125,62,133791,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-253365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-brian-vahaly","11":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","12":"tag-coco-gauff","13":"tag-compensation-in-sports","14":"tag-iga-swiatek","15":"tag-jack-draper","16":"tag-jannik-sinner","17":"tag-larry-scott","18":"tag-new-york","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-novak-djokovic","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-stacey-allaster","23":"tag-tennis","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115264464162869324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}