Aryna Sabalenka has insisted that the player push for a greater financial contribution from grand slams is primarily focused on improving the welfare of lower-ranked players, as the world's elite advanced with their eve-of-tournament protest at Roland Garros.
“I feel like the whole point here, it’s not about me,” Sabalenka said. “It’s about the players who are lower in the ranking, who are suffering. It’s not easy to live in this tennis world with that percentage that we are earning. As the world No 1, I feel like I have to stand up and to fight for those players, for lower-level players, for players who are coming back after injuries, the upcoming generation.”
The top players opted to escalate their frustrations with the grand slams during media day at Roland Garros by refusing to participate in all but the mandatory media interviews. They planned to cap their media duties at 15 minutes, a symbolic figure chosen to represent the roughly 15% of average revenue allocated to player prize money by the grand slams.
A number of top players have been in dispute with the grand slam tournaments for over a year after sending a signed letter requesting the grand slams to allocate more of their tournament revenues to prize money, contribute to player welfare initiatives such as a pension, and to create a grand slam player council. Participants included Sabalenka, Jannik Sinner, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz.
Andrey Rublev, the men's world No 13 and a member of the ATP advisory council, said: “It’s not only about the money and stuff like that. There are many aspects. They don’t hear you. They don’t answer. Just to give you an example: when you send the mail, no one responds to official mail for months.”
The most high-profile omission from the protests was Novak Djokovic, who chose not to participate. The winner of 24 grand slams has been part of various player-power initiatives over the years but has recused himself from these initiatives late in his career.
