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French Open backlash as high tennis stars livid at prize cash announcement

A bunch of high tennis gamers have voiced their disappointment after this 12 months’s French Open prize cash figures had been shared.

French Open organisers introduced a rise within the general prize purse this 12 months (Picture: Getty)

A bunch of present and former top-10 ATP and WTA tennis stars, which incorporates Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, have shared their “deep disappointment” on the French Open’s current prize cash announcement. The second Grand Slam match of the season will get underway this month in Paris, and organisers have already confirmed a 9.53 per cent improve on this 12 months’s prize pot.

The singles champions will obtain a £2.4million (€2.8million) winners’ cheque, up from the £2.2m (€2.55m) that Alcaraz and Coco Gauff acquired once they claimed the trophies in 2025. However main tennis gamers have identified that their share of match income has really decreased this 12 months.

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In March 2025, a gaggle of high gamers co-signed a letter to leaders of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments, asking for a larger share of match income as prize cash, monetary contributions to participant welfare schemes, and larger say in choices that impression them.

On the lads’s facet, these gamers had been Sinner, Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex de Minaur. On the ladies’s facet, Sabalenka, Gauff, Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Jasmine Paolini, Emma Navarro, Zheng Qinwen, Paula Badosa and Mirra Andreeva signed the letter.

And it’s these athletes who’ve expressed “collective disappointment” over the French Open prize cash announcement, citing the truth that gamers’ share of match income will scale back from 15.5 per cent in 2024, to a projected 14.9 per cent this 12 months.

There has additionally been “no response” to gamers’ proposals on welfare, which incorporates pension and long-term well being schemes, and “no progress” on honest and clear participant popularity inside the decision-making on the Slams.

Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff took house £2.2m every for successful the 2025 French Open (Picture: Getty)

An announcement made on behalf of Sinner, Sabalenka and co learn: “As Roland Garros seems to put up file revenues, gamers are subsequently receiving a declining share of the worth they assist create.

“Extra critically, the announcement does nothing to deal with the structural points that gamers have constantly and fairly raised over the previous 12 months. There was no engagement on participant welfare and no progress in the direction of establishing a proper mechanism for participant session inside Grand Slam decision-making.

“Whereas different main worldwide sports activities are modernising governance, aligning stakeholders, and constructing long-term worth, the Grand Slams stay resistant to vary. The absence of participant session and the continued lack of funding in participant welfare mirror a system that doesn’t adequately signify the pursuits of those that are central to the game’s success.”

Final month, the French Open confirmed that its complete prize cash purse would improve to £53.25m (€61.7m). However the participant cohort famous that it will nonetheless be lower than 15 per cent of the projected £345m (€400m) match revenues this 12 months. Compared, joint ATP and WTA 1000 occasions just like the upcoming Italian Open share 22 per cent of revenues as prize cash.

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