There’s a movement in tennis as top players like Jannik Sinner, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka are pushing for a higher percentage of revenue added to the prize money of Roland Garros and other Grand Slams. Currently, it’s less than 15%, and the players want around 22% of revenue or are threatening to boycott Grand Slams.
A startling fact shows that tennis, despite being one of the richest and most popular global sports, has a massive income disparity between players and other components of revenue. Hardly, the top 200 players could make a living off it. When compared to other sports, the dark reality of tennis comes to the fore.
Among all sports/leagues, the top tennis tournaments have the lowest revenue share. Take the example of Roland Garros, it pales in the comparison of player revenue split in the NBA (51%), NHL (50%), MLB (50%) and NFL (48.5%). These are the top-most valued leagues in the world. Roland Garros shares only 14.5 percent of its revenue with players.
Roland Garros generates revenue north of $500 million, but its prize money pool is only around $70 million. The organizers inherit the rest of it and to cover expenses.
Top players, who initially had their differences on the same issue, are coming together to give a strong voice to the movement. The PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association) is working actively. It was founded in 2020 by Vasek Pospisil and Novak Djokovic, with an aim to represent the best interests of male and female professional tennis players.
Coco Gauff, Jannik Sinner and Others Against Unnecessary Revenue Split in Roland Garros
The French Open is just a couple of weeks away, but the players are angry and are even threatening to boycott the Grand Slam altogether.
Leading the voice, WTA World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said players may eventually need to boycott Grand Slams to “fight for our rights.”
“I think at some point we will boycott it, yeah. I feel like that’s going to be the only way to fight for our rights,” Sabalenka said. “Let’s see how far we can get, if it’s going to take players for boycott … Some of the things, I feel like it’s really unfair to the players. I think at some point it’s going to get to this.”
Coco Gauff thought about lower-ranked players, going from paycheck to paycheck, to land voice to the ongoing movement.
“It’s not about me. It’s about the future of our sport and also the current players who aren’t getting as much benefits, maybe, as even some of the top players are getting when it comes to sponsorship and things like that,” Gauff said.
“We’re making money off court. When you look at the (players ranked) 50 to 100, 50 to 200, how much money each Slam makes, it’s kind of unfortunate where the 200 best tennis players are living paycheck to paycheck.”
Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner feels disrespected after their numerous attempts to increase revenue sharing failed.
“It’s more about respect, you know? Because I think we give much more than what we are getting back. It’s not only for the top players, it’s for all of us players,” Sinner told reporters ahead of the Italian Open in Rome. “Of course, we talk about money. The most important is respect, and we just don’t feel it.”
“It’s not nice that after one year we are not even close to the conclusion of what we would like to have,” he added. “So I do understand players talking about a boycott ’cause it’s somewhere we also need to start. Now it’s been a very long time with this. Then we see in the future.”
This year, Roland Garros increased its prize money pool by 9.5% to 61.7 million euros ($72.19 million). However, since tournament revenue decreased, the players’ revenue shared dipped from 15.5% in 2024 to 14.9% projected in 2026.
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