“At some point, we will have to boycott”: world number 1 Aryana Sabalenka threatens Grand Slam tournaments including Roland-Garros

The threat has never been greater. World tennis number 1 Aryna Sabalenka said she was ready, on Tuesday, to boycott the Grand Slam tournaments to obtain a better distribution of income, after a group of players expressed, on Monday, their “deep disappointment” about the increase in the prize pool planned for Roland-Garros. The Parisian meeting will be held this year from May 24 to June 7.

“We are putting on a show,” Sabalenka declared at a press conference on the sidelines of the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome. Without us there would be no tournaments, without us there would be no entertainment, I think we deserve to be paid more. »

“If it’s the only solution”

“At some point, we will have to boycott if it is the only solution to defend our rights,” continued the Belarusian. “If it comes to a boycott, I think that we, the players, can unite, because certain things in Grand Slams are really unfair for us. »

In April 2025, the main players of the ATP and WTA circuits co-signed a letter addressed to the organizers of the four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) in which they requested a better distribution of income, demanding that the share intended for players increase to 22%.

A record prize pool of 61.7 million euros at Roland Garros

Since then, the Grand Slams have all revised their prize pools upwards. The Parisian tournament also announced in mid-April that the overall prize pool for the 2026 edition would amount to 61.7 million euros, an increase of 9.5%.

A defeat in the first round of qualifying earns a minimum of 24,000 euros, reaching the main round 87,000 euros. The winner of the tournament takes home €2.8 million, compared to €2.5 billion last year.

An insufficient response for the players, including Sabalenka but also the number 1 of the men’s circuit Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek, deplored that “the share of winnings paid will probably remain below 15%, far from the 22% requested”.

“A somewhat extreme solution”

Asked about this subject before entering the competition in Rome, the Polish Iga Swiatek estimated that “boycotting tournaments would still be a somewhat extreme solution”. “The most important thing is to communicate and discuss with the organizers, to negotiate. Let’s hope that before Roland-Garros there will be the possibility of having a meeting of this type,” the world number 3 diplomatically indicated.

Asked by AFP at the start of the week, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) recalled that the allocation had increased by 45% since 2019 and that a “significant part” of the increase in 2026 had been directed towards “players eliminated during the first rounds of the main draw and qualifying”, with increases greater than 11%.

The FFT assured that it remains “fully engaged in an ongoing dialogue with all stakeholders in world tennis and is available to players to discuss directly with them”.