“Let’s boycott the Slams”, Sabalenka and Paolini attack on prize money from Internazionali Roma 2026

The first to launch a real challenge was the WTA world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka: “When you see the numbers of the Slams and how much the players receive, something is wrong. I think the show is focused on us players. I think that without us there would be no tournament and consequently there would be no entertainment”, said the Belarusian in the conference, “I believe that we deserve to receive a higher percentage of rewards“.

Then the appeal to the rest of the players on the circuit and the proposed boycott: “I hope that the negotiations we are carrying out will, at a certain point, lead to the right decision, with a solution that can make everyone happy. I believe that at a certain point we will get to the boycott, yes“, Sabalenka continued, “I feel like it’s theonly way to fight to defend our rights. We’ll see how far we get, if it gets to the point that we players will have to boycott the tournaments. We girls can easily come to an agreement and carry out the boycott, I think what we are experiencing is very unfair towards us players.”

A widely shared hard line, starting from Jasmine Paolini: “It’s certainly a topic that’s going around in the dressing room, I think we’re fighting so that there is a better and more correct arrangement for the players, also compared to the pensions and maternity“, said the Italian tennis player in the press conference, “these are things that the WTA and the ATP are doing, but the Grand Slam tournaments are not doing them. We are fighting for this, the good thing is that we are all united. The Slams are raising prize money, but not as a percentage of how much revenue is growing. Boycott? If we all agree and we are all unitedand right now we are, I think it could lead to a boycott”.

More diplomatic, but equally firm on the topic, the Polish tennis player Iga Swiateknumber 3 in the world: “I think our proposal is quite reasonable, we want to have an adequate percentage of prize money. Talking about an increase in prize money is not correct, because in reality the percentage of prize money compared to revenues continues to fall”, explained Swiatek in the Central conference, “the most important thing is to have the right communication and discuss with those who govern these tournaments, try to negotiate. We hope to have these meetings before Roland Garros and we will see how they go. Among the top-20 we have often had positive discussions, not only on prize money but also on the war in Ukraine and during Covid. But I think boycotting tournaments is an extreme solution”.

The jackpot case

Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and over twenty tennis players have signed a letter to complain about the lack of growth in the Roland Garros prize money, despite a substantial growth in revenues, extending this to all Slams. Among the signatories also Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff.

In the joint statement, the players wanted to express their disappointment not only with the size of the prize money up for grabs at Roland Garros, which starts at the end of the month, but also with all the other Slams. The tennis players have asked once again, as has been the case for about a year, for fairer prizes but also for greater social security and pension protection, as well as a say in the choices of the calendar.

Last month Roland Garros announced a 9.5% increase in prize money, bringing it to a total of 61.7 million euros, with the winners pocketing 2.8 million. But it’s not enough. In fact, this is a figure significantly lower than the 20% increase achieved by the US Open in the last edition, despite noting a substantial increase in revenues. Furthermore, according to players’ estimates, the prize money is equivalent to around 15% of the total turnover of the tournament, estimated for the 2026 edition at around 400 million euros.