The tennis pay row has escalated further with the world’s top 10 male and female players rejecting an offer from the Grand Slams to set up a player council that would give them a greater say in the running of the major championships.
In correspondence sent to Wimbledon, the French Open and US Open last week, the players turned down the offer of a meeting with representatives of the three grand slams at the Indian Wells Masters next month and accused the tournament organizers of ignoring their concerns about pay and player welfare.
“Before committing to another meeting, it would be more productive for the grand slams to provide substantive responses, individually or collectively, to the specific proposals the players have put forward regarding prize money at a fair share of grand slam revenues, and player health, welfare, and benefits contributions,” the letter says.
Photo: Reuters
The players have been lobbying for a greater share of the money made by those organizing the Grand Slam championships since last year’s French Open when a delegation, including Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, urged executives from all four tournaments to increase their prize funds to 22 percent of revenue by 2030, which would be in line with ATP and WTA Tour events.
Alcaraz is to receive A$2.8 million (US$2 million) for completing the career Grand Slam by beating Novak Djokovic on Sunday in Melbourne as part of a record Australian Open prize fund of A$85 million, the second-highest of the majors after the US Open. Despite being a significant increase, it remains about 16 percent of the tournament’s income. At Wimbledon last year, the total prize pot of ￡50 million (US$68.4 million) was 12.3 percent of the tournament’s ￡406.5 million revenue.
Three of the Grand Slams, minus the Australian Open, wrote to the players in December last year offering a meeting on setting up a Grand Slam player council, but ignored their demands on pay and welfare.
In a further indication of the in-fighting, Tennis Australia is not involved in the dispute, as it has aligned with the Professional Tennis Players’ Association, which is suing the other three Grand Slam governing bodies in New York’s district court over alleged restrictive practices.
After a series of meetings in the locker room in Melbourne, a representative of the players wrote to Wimbledon, the French Open and US Open last week making clear that any discussions on governance and the creation of a player council had to be accompanied by meaningful talks on pay.
“While the players recognize that governance structures can play an important role, they are concerned that prioritizing council formation over the core economic issues risks becoming a process discussion that delays rather than advances meaningful progress,” the letter reads.
A number of the leading female players are understood to have become more disillusioned with the governance of tennis as a result of events at the Australian Open. There is widespread unhappiness at the decision to install extra TV cameras in warm-up and cool-down areas without any consultation, which led to a video of Gauff smashing her racket in what was previously a private space going viral last week after her quarter-final defeat by Elina Svitolina.
Many players are also understood to have been aggrieved by Sunday’s announcement from Australian Open director Craig Tiley that the Australian Open is exploring moving to best-of-five-set matches for women from the quarter-final stage, a radical move that has not been discussed with the players.
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