Women’s world number one Aryna Sabalenka suggested players may start boycotting Grand Slams if they don’t receive more prize money.
Sabalenka, men’s number one Jannik Sinner and several other top players issued a statement on Monday expressing disappointment over the prize money at the upcoming French Open.
It was revealed last month that Roland Garros will increase its overall prize money pot by around 10% to £53.5m; an increase of £4.6m from 2025.
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Top players have threatened to boycott Grand Slams over prize money concerns…
However, the players’ statement claimed the “underlying figures tell a very different story”, and that they will get a smaller share of the revenue from the tournament.
It explained that the players’ share of tournament revenue at Roland Garros has gone down from 15.5% to a projected 14.9% in 2026.
American star Coco Gauff said she could see players joining a boycott, while four-time Roland Garros winner Iga Swiatek has called it ‘a bit extreme’.
Now, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic has weighed in on the dispute.
Novak Djokovic praises Aryna Sabalenka after call for boycott
Speaking in his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the Italian Open, Djokovic was asked about Sabalenka’s comments.
He responded: “I think you’ve been around the tour long enough to I think remember the times when I was a president of the council, when I was also forming PTPA, which is now six years ago.
“So you guys know my position on that. I’ve said it many times. I don’t need to talk about that too long.
Players know that they’ll always have my support, and that’s all.
“The new generations are coming up. I’m glad that there is willingness from the leaders of our sport, like Sabalenka, to really step up and really understand the dynamics of how the tennis politics works and understand the nuances and really what needs to be done not only for her benefit and well-being, but for everyone.
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“That’s a true leadership for me and I think she needs to maintain that. I salute that. That’s all I have to say about that.
“We’re all part of the same sport. We all try to elevate the game, whether it’s players, tournaments, governing bodies.
“Unfortunately oftentimes there is a conflict of interest that some people don’t want to address. I think that’s where the players really have the power. I’m always supportive of the stronger player position in the ecosystem.”
Novak Djokovic highlights the big funding issue tennis has
Djokovic continued: “Now is the time to talk about it. I do like the fact that there is more conversations happening on this. It needs to be because players’ position is not where it needs to be with slams, with tours. Just overall it’s not there.
“Hence the reason why I co-founded the players association, PTPA. That was my kind of search for more profound, meaningful solution a little bit outside of a system because the system is set up in such way that it just doesn’t benefit players across all fields.
“You know, also in the past what I notice is many times people would twist particularly my words and say I’m requesting myself for more money, even when I was winning slams. You guys like to put headlines of the Grand Slam winner gets so-and-so, never more in history.
“But we are not talking about the lower-ranked players, the tier one, the ground base level of the tennis players that are struggling. They’re leaving tennis because of no funding.
“We are, I think, the only global sport, if you see all the global sports, I think we’re the only ones that are in this particular situation where we don’t have a certain financial, say, gains or guarantees for the lower-ranked players. I don’t know if it changed since whatever, a few years.
“We were in the PTPA back in the days counting and doing studies and investigating on how many players across men’s and women’s, singles, doubles, live out of this sport. It’s very, very small number.
“When we talk about living out of this sport is when you do your P&L at the end of the day and you have all the costs that you have to cover, traveling and your team, that you actually have some savings to be able to invest in something else. It’s a very little number.
“So at the end of the day this is always an open discussion. Tennis, as any big global sport, is a big business. It’s not that simple. Of course, it needs to be approached from all sides with willingness to work together and figure out what the formula is.
“Also something that needs to be said is that the monopoly of our sport is very strong. If you go back when the ATP for example was founded back in, what is it, beginning of the ’90s or end of ’80s, the tennis has changed a lot, but there’s certain things within the structure that hasn’t changed.
“The players within the player council have really absolutely no power. I’ve been there. I was president of the council.
“I’ve been there many years. In public you may think there is some power by electing the representative of players, then there’s a board, the whole structure is just conceptualized in a certain way where players are just not able to get what they want.
“That’s hence why the top players come together and try to negotiate directly with slams, which I think is the right way. You have to try to figure out ways to benefit.”
Djokovic will take on Dino Prizmic in his opening match at the 2026 Italian Open on Friday.
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