Top tennis players renew feud with grand slam tournaments over prize money

The world’s top tennis players have expressed their “deep and collective disappointment” at the prize money on offer at this year’s Roland Garros . While French Open organisers have announced an increase of 9. 5 per cent in total prize money for this year’s tournament, rising to an overall pot of €61.

7m (£53. 7m), several leading players from the men’s and women’s top 10 continue to be frustrated. The group of star players, including Carlos Alcaraz , Jannik Sinner , Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff , have long argued that they should receive a greater percentage of the revenues generated by the four grand slam tournaments and were similarly disappointment by the prize money at this year’s Australian Open .

According to the group, their share of the overall revenue generated by Roland Garros is projected to decline to 14. 3 per cent this year. In recent years, the players have pushed for that figure to be closer to the 22 per cent received at mixed events on the ATP and WTA Tours with equal prize money, such as Indian Wells and this month’s Italian Open.

In response, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) said a decision had been made to focus prize money increases on “players who exit the tournament in the early rounds of the main draw and the qualifying stages”. Figures released by Roland Garros reveal an increase of around 11 per cent for the first three rounds of the main draw, compared to a 9. 8 per cent increase for the singles champions.