The world’s leading players were true to their word, or lack of them, at Wimbledon on Saturday as they duly limited their media appearances to 15 minutes. It was part of a continued effort in their quest for the grand slam events to give them more prize money as a share of tournament revenue, plus investment in pensions and more money toward player welfare.
Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1s, led the way, while Jessica Pegula suggested the protests, which players say will happen throughout the first week of the championships, are also likely to continue at the US Open, which takes place in New York in August.
“It’s something we felt was productive and worked well at the French [Open],” Pegula said. “Fifteen minutes, some people are like: ‘Well, what is that going to do?’ Well, we usually spend 90 minutes. It’s an easy way to get players to become united when you tell them they don’t have to do media. They [say]: ‘Sure, I’ll sign up for that less obligation.’”
After the protests at the French Open, Wimbledon reacted by increasing its prize money for this year’s event by 20% to £64.2m. The players, who are being advised by Larry Scott, the former CEO of the WTA Tour, claim that equates to just over 14% of the All England Club’s revenue, based on 2025-26 predictions.
“We’re very grateful that one of the [slams] has raised the prize money, but it’s not really answering the questions we’ve been asking,” Pegula said. “I don’t know if the point’s just not getting across. We’ll see how it progresses over the next couple of weeks and then going into the next slam, which is the US Open. I think we’ll get a good grasp about where we’re really standing with the slams.”
While the players were largely united in their message, the way they went about it was a bit chaotic. Sinner conducted a normal-length press conference of about 10 minutes, saying it’s “not only about the money”. Sabalenka cut her press conference short. “If you look at the prize money over the last 10 years [as a share of revenue], it’s stayed the same,” she said, adding that she hoped they never have to do it again.
“We do it for the tour, we don’t do it for ourselves. We do it for the rest of the players who are suffering to even hire a coach. It’s not an easy life for players who are lower in the ranking. So we do it for them.”
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As in Paris, Novak Djokovic was not part of the protest. The 24-time grand slam champion led the prize money debate for many years, but has stepped away from the current protests. Wimbledon said last week it was disappointed by the action, reiterating that share of revenue does not fully take into account the money it puts back into tennis in the UK.
