A group of top-10 WTA and ATP stars met with the chiefs of each of the four Grand Slams at Roland Garros on Thursday to discuss prize money, player welfare and giving them more say in decisions that directly impact them at the majors.
As previously reported by the Associated Press, the elite of the women’s and men’s tours, including Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff, signed a letter to the four slams at the end of March, requesting an in-person meeting with the heads of the four majors to bring forth the aforementioned issues.
The meeting, which was initially meant to take place at the Madrid Open last month, finally materialised in Paris on Thursday ahead of Sunday's start of the French Open.
Talks lasted around an hour and The National understands it was attended by multiple top players, including Sinner and Gauff.
The players are seeking a greater percentage of tournament revenue, would like the slams to make financial contributions to the player welfare programmes funded by the tours, and perhaps more importantly, demand a seat at the table when it comes to some of the major decisions taken that impact competition, and their wellbeing at tournaments.
In Madrid a few weeks ago, Gauff noted the disparity between the percentage of revenue dedicated to athletes in other sports compared to tennis.
“As you know, tennis and the percentage shared in revenue isn't nearly as close as other sports. So, I definitely think that's something in our sport that we can do. It won't only benefit top players, it will also benefit lower-ranked players as well,” said the American.
“In other sports, you look at the 100th best player in maybe basketball or football or soccer or anything, and the percentage that they give versus our 100th or 200th best is not great.
“So, I think for us, we kind of understood maybe the privilege and the audience that we can get as top players to kind of make that change. So, we just sent that letter, and hopefully to have the conversation get started, and hopefully how that can improve in the future.”
The majors have been increasing their prize money commitment almost every year. This year, Roland Garros is offering a total prize pot of €56.352 million, up 5.21 per cent from last year. There will be prize money increases in every round and the men’s and women’s singles champions will each earn €2.55 million.
Gauff added: “I'm very aware that we are professional athletes, and we do live a very privileged life and make money doing something that, you know, is pretty easy. Not easy, but you know what I mean. I think it's just a very nuanced conversation.”
“I always say this, especially as a female athlete in tennis, I always say that when I look at other sports, we're very privileged. You look at WNBA and even some of the soccer, and the money they're getting for the amount of effort they put in is not close.
“So, I'm very lucky that tennis had pioneers like Billie Jean King and Venus Williams [who] started that conversation very early on. So, yeah, I think it's just continuing that conversation within our sport, but also having that conversation so that other sports can reach that too.”
The fact that the women and men are coming together to raise such issues is fairly unprecedented, especially in recent tennis history.
Conversations about approaching the Grand Slams started several months ago and were spearheaded by members of the WTA Player Council, according to world No 3 Pegula.
The letter sent to the majors coincided with the antitrust lawsuit filed by the PTPA, a player association co-founded by Djokovic, against the ATP and WTA tours but Pegula insists the two initiatives are completely unrelated.
“It's totally unrelated. 100 per cent unrelated,” Pegula said in Madrid. “It's something that we were working on seven, eight months ago. So it's just been in the works. I don't want to say, like, too much because it hasn't really gone anywhere yet. It's just started. It's new.
“But I'll definitely say it's not related to what the PTPA are doing. It was honestly just a coincidence of the timing.”
Reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys was part of the early conversations sparked by the WTA Player Council. The American world No 7 believes having a seat, and a voice, at the table is will be crucial moving forward.
“We really wanted to have a more open communication with the slams and just at least know what was going on. And so that was really a big thing that we kind of started and pushed,” said Keys in the Spanish capital.
“And I feel like it's just been years and years of finally getting it here. And I would imagine that the council at this point felt like it was a good time to bring the men in as well and have a unified voice.
“But yeah, it's just we want some more open communication and just the ability to kind of be in the room when decisions are being made.”
While full details of what happened in the meeting are yet to be revealed, The National understands that the next steps will involve the players contacting the Grand Slams about committing to a timeline to start addressing their demands.
