Players holding media protest at French Open over Grand Slam prize money

Many of professional tennis’s top stars don’t believe they’re receiving a fair share of Grand Slam prize money and appropriate player benefits, and they’re staging a media protest to make their point.

The 2026 French Open gets underway at Roland Garros this week and, according to Charlie Eccleshare and Ava Wallace of The Athletic, some of the top players have agreed to several media-related protests during the tournament. The leading 20 male and female players, a group that includes Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, and Coco Gauff, are leading the charge.

Per sources, players will walk out of their pre-tournament news conferences after 15 minutes. They will also refuse interviews with the French Open media and the tournament’s primary rights holders, TNT Sports and Eurosport. According to The Guardian, they will still conduct flash interviews with broadcasters after matches in order to avoid fines.

The players reportedly chose 15 minutes for press conferences as a reference to the Grand Slams’ average allocation of 15 percent of revenues to prize money. Top players have pushed to see that number rise to 22 percent, which would be in line with joint ATP and WTA events.

“We regret the players’ decision, which impacts all of the tournament’s stakeholders: the media, broadcasters, the FFT and the entire tennis community, all of whom follow each edition of Roland-Garros with great enthusiasm,” said a French Tennis Federation (FFT) spokesperson via text message Wednesday. “The FFT recognises the importance of the players’ contribution to the tournament’s success, and wishes to maintain close ties with them. In early May, it proposed a meeting that will take place on Friday 22 May with some of their representatives.

“The FFT is ready to engage in direct and constructive dialogue on governance issues, with a view to giving players a greater say in decision-making, contributing to players’ welfare and evolutions in the value-sharing model.”

Per The Athletic, those talks are expected to happen this week and are set to include FFT president Gilles Moretton, French Open tournament director Amélie Mauresmo, and former ATP Tour player and ex-WTA chief executive Larry Scott, who is advising the players. Meetings with Wimbledon and US Open representatives are expected in the near future.

The French Open’s 2026 prize pool is up 9.5 percent from 2025 to $72.3 million, which is about 15 percent of the tournament’s projected revenue, per the players’ estimates.

The Australian Open recently increased its prize pool by 16 percent to $75 million, the U.S. Open raised its pool by 21 percent to a record $85 million, and Wimbledon offered $72.6 million in 2025, which is up seven percent from the previous year. However, all of those figures fall short of the 22 percent-of-revenue mark that players are looking for.

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