Main tennis gamers will develop their prize cash protest at Wimbledon – regardless of a 20% enhance on this yr’s pot.
Some gamers restricted pre-tournament media to quarter-hour on the latest French Open, however will go a step additional at Wimbledon.
They won’t solely restrict the time they provide on the forthcoming media weekend, however are additionally planning to limit post-match appearances to fifteen minutes all through the primary week of the championships, which begin on Monday.
The 15-minute restrict is supposed to symbolise the 15% of income which – broadly talking – the Grand Slams allocate to prize cash.
It’s claimed the choice has the help of a lot of the world’s high 20 gamers.
In Paris, girls’s world primary Aryna Sabalenka minimize brief her pre-tournament press convention, whereas gamers like Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek additionally adopted the ‘work to rule’ directive.
However Novak Djokovic, who has recurrently spoken out on behalf of gamers’ rights, didn’t participate within the motion.
Earlier this month the gamers welcomed Wimbledon’s 20% enhance as a “real and important step ahead”.
The whole prize fund at this yr’s championships will probably be £64.2m, following the biggest annual enhance within the occasion’s historical past.
The singles’ champions will every take dwelling £3.6m with first-round losers paid £80,000.
The gamers issued a press release describing the announcement as a “significant assertion of intent” – whereas additionally declaring it nonetheless doesn’t equate to the 16% of match income they’re requesting.
In addition to campaigning for the Grand Slams to hyperlink prize cash to match income, gamers are additionally asking for contributions to their profit pool and a higher say in how the occasions are run.
The whole prize cash sum is about £7m in need of what the gamers had been hoping for.
“We do not take a look at percentages, we do not truly imagine that’s the proper metric,” Deborah Jevans, the chair of the All England Membership, instructed BBC Sport earlier this month.
“It’s one metric that’s primarily based purely on income and would not take note of any prices and we can’t run a enterprise in that manner.
“We’ve bills – we’ve got spoken about infrastructure and funding in grass courtroom tennis.
“You can not run a sustainable enterprise, and we’ve got practically been round for 150 years, simply by taking a look at income. That’s simply plainly mistaken.”
