Players keep up the pressure on the Grand Slam tournaments by asking organisers to increase prize money.<\/p>\n
Published On 4 May 20264 May 2026<\/p>\n
A group of leading tennis players, including Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, have expressed \u201ctheir deep disappointment\u201d at the prize money on offer at Roland Garros during a lingering dispute with Grand Slam tournament organisers.<\/p>\n
The clay court Grand Slam event starts on May 24 in Paris. The players said they have other demands that have not been addressed by officials, including better representation, healthcare and pensions.<\/p>\n
The players\u2019 call came after French Open organisers announced last month that the Roland Garros prize money increased by about 10 percent for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1m), up by 5.3 million euros ($6.2m) from last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers\u2019 share of Roland Garros tournament revenue has declined from 15.5 percent in 2024 to 14.9 percent projected in 2026,\u201d the group of players responded in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
The French Open men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles champions each receive 2.8 million euros ($3.27m) and the runners-up 1.4 million euros ($1.63m). Semifinalists earn 750,000 euros ($878,383), and first-round losers get 87,000 euros ($101,897). Men\u2019s and women\u2019s doubles winners pocket 600,000 euros ($702,739), and the mixed doubles champions get 122,000 euros ($142,882).<\/p>\n
But the statement said \u201cthe underlying figures tell a very different story,\u201d claiming that players receive a declining share of the value they contribute to the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to tournament officials, Roland Garros generated 395m euros ($462m) in revenue in 2025, a 14 percent year-on-year increase, yet prize money rose by just 5.4 percent, reducing players\u2019 share of revenue to 14.3 percent,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith estimated revenues of over 400m euros ($468m) for this year\u2019s tournament, prize money as a percentage of revenue will likely still be less than 15 percent, far short of the 22 percent that players have requested to bring the Grand Slams into line with the ATP and WTA Combined 1000 events.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same group of players had already signed a letter sent to the heads of the four Grand Slam tournaments last year, seeking more prize money and a greater say in what they called \u201cdecisions that directly impact us\u201d.<\/p>\n
The players said they remain \u201cunited in their desire to see meaningful progress, both in terms of fair financial distribution and in how the sport is governed\u201d.<\/p>\n
They insisted they have not received any response to their proposals on welfare, including pensions and long-term healthcare, adding that no progress has been made \u201con fair and transparent player representation within Grand Slam decision-making\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile other major international sports are modernising governance, aligning stakeholders, and building long-term value, the Grand Slams remain resistant to change,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe absence of player consultation and the continued lack of investment in player welfare reflect a system that does not adequately represent the interests of those who are central to the sport\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Players keep up the pressure on the Grand Slam tournaments by asking organisers to increase prize money. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":773494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[440,156,50,1926,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-773493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-france","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116518591276110139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773493","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=773493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}