Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, and Coco Gauff Walk Out After 15 Minutes at French Open

Top tennis players are planning a “work-to-rule strategy” at the French Open by reducing their media appearances at Roland Garros, with players selected for Friday’s opening press conference set to “walk out after 15 minutes.”

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The protest is tied to the players’ argument that the grand slams allocate an average of 15% of their revenues to prize money, while the players want that figure to rise to 22%.

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The Guardian says the rest of the draw will refuse additional interviews with the tournament’s main media rights partners, TNT Sports and Eurosport, and that locker room talks followed the French Open’s confirmation that this year’s prize pot will be €61.7m (£52.6m).

The New York Times reports that at Roland Garros, where the second Grand Slam of the year starts Sunday, May 24, players will walk out of pre-tournament news conferences after 15 minutes and will refuse interviews with French Open media and TNT Sports and Eurosport.

The dispute has involved leading players including Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, who the Guardian says have been in dispute with all four grand slams for more than a year.

In response to the planned media protest, the French Tennis Federation said it “regret[s] the players’ decision,” which it said “impacts all of the tournament’s stakeholders: the media, broadcasters, the FFT and the entire tennis community.”

The New York Times reports that the FFT proposed a meeting “that will take place on Friday 22 May with some of their representatives,” and that the talks are planned between the group and FFT president Gilles Moretton as well as French Open tournament director Amélie Mauresmo.

BBC

The Guardian adds that Larry Scott, described as a former ATP Tour player and ex-WTA chief executive, is advising the group and is due to hold talks on Friday with Gilles Moretton and Amélie Mauresmo.

The Straits Times reports that the French tennis federation condemned the protest as penalising stakeholders, saying the players’ decision to cut short media duties “penalises all stakeholders in the tournament – the media, broadcasters, the federation’s staff, and the entire tennis family.”

The Straits Times also says a meeting between organisers and player representatives is set for May 22, and that the protest is described as limiting media duties to 15 minutes on media day at Roland Garros before refusing further interviews.

The players’ protest is framed as a bid to change the revenue split, with the Guardian saying the slams allocate an average of 15% of their revenues to prize money while the players are calling on the slams to match the 22% share paid by the ATP and WTA tours.

“PARIS, France— I’d heard rumblings overnight that the group of top-10 players on both tours who have been advocating for a bigger share of revenue from the Grand Slam events—a movement on which they have the support of the tours, their agents, and various consultants—were planning to express their discontent through a familiar method: a boycott not of the actual French Open tournament itself, but of French Open press conferences”

Bounces

The Guardian reports that after the French Open’s prize money announcement, Sabalenka and Gauff raised the prospect of players boycotting the grand slams during interviews conducted at the Italian Open in Rome, while Iga Swiatek and Emma Raducanu distanced themselves from talk of a strike.

The Guardian says the French Open prize fund has risen by 9.5% this year, with the men’s and women’s winners to receive €2.8m, but that players are unhappy the increase is far more modest as a percentage of tournament revenues.

The Guardian also says Wimbledon will soon become the players’ focus with the All England Club due to announce its prize money in the second week of June, and that the All England Club’s income increased from about £165m in 2015 to more than £420m last year.

The Guardian adds that the players are particularly agitated about Wimbledon because the All England Club is planning to increase capacity by an extra 10,000 spectators each day if its proposed expansion takes place, and protests could take place during this summer’s Championships.