The top tennis players in the world are “planning to protest over prize money by reducing their media appearances” at the French Open. Players who will speak at Friday’s opening press conference will “walk out after 15 minutes,” symbolizing the Grand Slams allocating an average of 15% of their revenues to prize money. The rest of the draw will “refuse to conduct additional interviews with the tournament’s main media rights partners, TNT Sports and Eurosport.” A source said that after the French Open confirmed the prize pot would be US$71.7M, locker room talks led players to respond with “what they described as a ‘work-to-rule strategy’ in Paris,” with their off-court activities “kept to a bare minimum” (London GUARDIAN, 5/20).
The French Tennis Federation said that it will “continue to maintain an open dialogue,” adding that it “proposed a meeting expected to take place Friday with the players and their representatives” (AP, 5/20).
