Women’s world number one Aryna Sabalenka recently said players may start boycotting Grand Slams if no changes are made to tournament prize money.
The upcoming French Open recently revealed its prize money pot for the 2026 edition of the tournament, which will see an increase of around 10% to £53.5m.
However, a statement issued by several top players, including Sabalenka and men’s number one Jannik Sinner, highlighted that the overall players’ share of tournament revenue will go down from 15.5% to a projected 14.9%.
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Top players have threatened to boycott Grand Slams over prize money concerns…
A boycott of major tennis tournaments is very rare, and former French Open tournament Guy Forget suggested it would not work.
Guy Forget weighs in on the prize money dispute at Grand Slams
In an interview with Tennis Actu TV, Forget said: “Listen. The tennis player, perhaps like the golfer, plays an individual sport.
“There is no one more selfish than a tennis player. They only think of themselves, only think of their own interests.
“And the people around you – agents, coaches, physical trainers, press officers – make their living thanks to you.
“They have every interest, at a given moment, in pushing you to earn more, more, more, more. Today, the players are surrounded by people who sometimes push them into clumsy positions, and into a certain greed too at times.
“If today some of them want to – and it would be, in my view, a bizarre idea – boycott the tournament, they’re free to do it.
How would you now rate Aryna Sabalenka’s chances of winning the French Open on a scale of 1-10?
“But I can tell you that people will keep buying tickets and coming to Roland-Garros. Roland-Garros is a celebration. It’s a mythical place, it’s a temple, the temple of clay-court tennis today.
“And I think three-quarters of the players, if not nine-tenths, will be very happy to come, play one round and pick up €150,000 for losing in the second round.
“They are pretty well paid, I would say, for two days’ work. We’re not helped by the government, by the local authorities, in investing in our tool.
“So today, the federation has been managed that way, it takes initiative, it invests, and it is normal that it reaps the benefits.
Guy Forget says players should be thankful for past greats
Forget continued: “Over the last ten years, the prize money has more than doubled. That’s extraordinary. The prize money goes up by almost 15% every year. How many jobs do you know today where the salaried workers see their pay rise by 15% every year?
“The most mediocre player is going to earn that amount [€80,000] today for losing 6-1, 6-1 in 45 minutes.
“If Sabalenka has already earned, I believe, between four and five million dollars since the start of the season (4,020,272 per WTA numbers), it’s because before her, there were Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf – players who built the success of this tournament.
“To say today, ‘We feel we should have a percentage of the revenues’ – of a business that runs well but invests – would be like an actor saying: ‘Listen, I want this much.’ Well, here’s what we offer you. If you play, come and play your role.
“If you don’t want to come and play, someone else will take your place. Tomorrow, there will be other Sabalenkas, other players who will earn twice what she earns today.
“And at that point, I hope they’ll be smart enough to say: ‘We are lucky,’ rather than: ‘We don’t earn enough.’ If I were 20 years old, in Sabalenka’s place today, I would say thank you to Björn Borg, thank you to Roger Federer, for letting me live so well from the profession of tennis player.”
The 2026 edition of the French Open is set to get underway on the 18th of May.
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