Main gamers, together with Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, have expressed “deep disappointment” over prize cash ranges at Roland Garros, which has been in a protracted dispute with the organizers of the Grand Slam event.
The clay-court Grand Slam event begins within the west of Paris later this month. Gamers stated they’d different calls for that authorities had not addressed, together with higher illustration, well being and pensions.
The gamers’ name got here after French Open organizers introduced final month that Roland Garros prize cash had been elevated by about 10%, bringing the entire pot to 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million), a complete improve of 5.3 million euros ($6.2 million) from final 12 months.
“Athletes’ share of Roland Garros’ event income has declined from 15.5% in 2024 to an anticipated 14.9% in 2026,” the affiliation responded in an announcement on Monday.
Matches start on Could twenty fourth at Roland Garros. The boys’s and girls’s singles winners will every obtain 2.8 million euros ($3.28 million), and the runners-up will obtain 1.4 million euros ($1.64 million). Semi-finalists will obtain 750,000 euros ($878,685) and first-round losers will obtain 87,000 euros ($101,927). The boys’s and girls’s doubles winners will obtain 600,000 euros ($702,786), whereas the blended doubles winners will obtain 122,000 euros ($142,899).
However the assertion stated “the underlying numbers inform a really totally different story”, arguing that gamers are receiving a lowering share of the worth they contribute.
“In response to event officers, Roland Garros will generate income of 395 million euros ($462,481,800) in 2025, a rise of 14% from the earlier 12 months, however prize cash elevated by solely 5.4% and the athlete share of income decreased to 14.3%,” they stated. “Estimated income for this 12 months’s event is predicted to exceed 400 million euros ($468,426,000), however prize cash is more likely to nonetheless account for lower than 15% of that income, far wanting the 22% required by the gamers to align the Grand Slam with the ATP and WTA Mixed 1000 occasions.”
French Open organizers didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The identical group of athletes had already signed a letter to the leaders of the Grand Slam tournaments final 12 months, asking for elevated prize cash and extra say in what they referred to as “choices that immediately have an effect on them.”
The information company that issued the assertion stated it was issued within the title of the unique signatory of the unique letter, later including that Novak Djokovic had not signed the brand new assertion.
The gamers stated they “stay united in our want to see significant progress each in truthful funding and in the way in which our sport is run.” They declare they’ve acquired no response to proposals concerning advantages, together with pensions and long-term well being, including that no progress has been made “on truthful and clear participant illustration in Grand Slam decision-making.”
“Whereas different main worldwide sports activities are modernizing governance, aligning stakeholders and constructing long-term worth, the Grand Slams proceed to withstand change,” they stated. “The dearth of session with athletes and the continued lack of funding in participant welfare displays a system that doesn’t adequately symbolize the pursuits of these on the coronary heart of the game’s success.”
