The top men's and women's tennis players have agreed a truce with the All England Club (AELTC) in their battle for more prize money for the duration of this year's Championships at Wimbledon, following crisis talks over the weekend.
Players End Media Protest
In a surprise development last week, the players' representatives announced they would be escalating their protest over prize money at Wimbledon by continuing the 15-minute limit on media appearances that began at the French Open to throughout the first week at SW19. The world's leading players have been in dispute with the four grand slams since March 2025, when they first issued demands for more prize money linked to tournament revenues, contributions to player welfare funds and the formation of a grand slam player committee.
With some players threatening to boycott future tournaments, led by women's world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the interview protest was introduced as a first step at last month's French Open, although it was limited to the pre-tournament media day. The All England Club had hoped to avoid a repeat at Wimbledon after announcing a record prize money increase of 20% and were surprised by last week's announcement.
Concessions Made
Having limited their pre-tournament interviews, the players on Monday announced that following talks with the All England Club over the weekend, they are prepared to resume full engagement with the media. A source close to the negotiations revealed that the All England Club have made concessions, including following the example of the French Open in pledging to make concrete proposals on a new prize money formula and enhanced player representation this summer.
"Following constructive meetings between player representatives and AELTC leadership over the weekend, players have confirmed they will resume normal tournament media duties from Monday 29 June," a statement from the players said. "This decision is based on Wimbledon's commitment to return with specific proposals addressing all three points of the players' July 2025 submission. The underlying matters remain unresolved and players will carefully evaluate the proposals once received."
Revenue Share Discrepancy
Wimbledon's increased prize pot of £64.2m fell significantly short of the £71m demanded by the players, who feel they should receive a greater share of tournament revenues at all four slams. While the ATP and WTA Tours allocate around 22% of tournament revenues to prize money, the revenue share at Wimbledon is 14.4%, with the players having pushed for 16%.
The AELTC chief executive, Sally Bolton, who is standing down at the end of the Championships, welcomed the players' move. "I think it's great news that we and they can now just concentrate on the championships and on the tennis," she said. "We've had some really fruitful conversations over the weekend. They've been really positive."
Bolton added: "We've effectively agreed what we had agreed before, which is that we want to continue in positive dialogue, but we've been requesting financial information from their representative for quite some time. He [Larry Scott] is going to provide that, and once we've got that financial information and we've had the chance to have a look at it, we can re-engage with those discussions after the championships."
