French Open: Aryna Sabalenka cuts short press conference early as players protest Grand Slam prize fund allocation

Aryna Sabalenka cut short her French Open press conference on Friday, as part of a protest by top tennis players over the prize money on offer at Grand Slams.

Sabalenka, world No 1 Jannik Sinner and Coco Gauff have all expressed "disappointment" at the percentage of revenue players are allocated at the slams. In protest, they are limiting their press conferences to 15 minutes.

At present, players believe they are only paid 15.5 per cent of the tournament's revenue - a seven per cent decrease compared to allocations on ATP and WTA Tour events.

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Ahead of the French Open, some players are taking a stand against the pay row, opting to leave media commitments after 15 minutes, a number symbolising the 15 per cent revenue share.

Sabalenka was recently praised by Novak Djokovic for taking a leading stance on the matter, with the 28-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion again reinforcing her stance on Friday.

"It's not about me. ⁠It's about the players who are lower in the ranking, who are suffering," Sabalenka ⁠said.

"But as the world No 1, I feel like I have to stand up and to fight for those players."

Sabalenka added: "I stand with my words.

"We wanted to do it in a respectful way at the beginning, and you guys know how much we respect you and we appreciate you. It's not about you. It's just we are trying to fight for a fair percentage."

"We just wanted to make our point, and we are united - 15 minutes is better than zero.

"As I said a thousand times today, I have huge respect, but we know what's happening here, so thank you so much."

Sabalenka ended the English segment of her presser, before adding: "Now it's time for [my] national language. Thank you so much for being here, for asking questions."

Multiple players, including Sabalenka, completed a camera-facing interview before spending 10 minutes answering questions from written journalists.

Tournament bosses at Roland Garros spoke of their "regret" at the situation earlier this week. They added they were keen to work with the players and have scheduled a meeting on Friday.

The saga comes after Roland Garros bosses announced a £4.58m (€5.3m) increase in the total prize pot to £53.39m (€61.7m) from 2025. Men's and women's singles champions will pocket £2.42m (€2.8m).

Gauff was another who ended her press conference after 15 minutes.

"I have to go. Sorry. I'll see you guys later," Gauff said.

"It shows a lot of us are all on the same page and have kind of a collective action other than just having conversations," Gauff said. "This is the first real point of action we have done."

Sabalenka had even mentioned the prospect of a boycott heading into the event, but it seems some players, including Taylor Fritz won't go that far.

"I don't know if I want to start throwing around the 'B' word," Fritz said.

"It's a really big deal, and I don't think we as players should really make big threats like that unless we're fully ready to do it. I think that's a discussion we need to have and we need to see what the potential ramifications for doing that are."

Sinner again concurred with Sabalenka's comments, speaking of unity before following up on his comments at the Italian Open by once again adding that the issue was about respect.

"As I also said in Rome, it's about the respect, and when we have to wait for over a year for just a small response, it's not nice.

"So let's see where we go. Let's see how other Grand Slams are going to react after here, and then we're going to decide."

Andrey Rublev concurred, adding that the issue was about trying to grow the sport.

"It's more about are we together, and we try to do something together to grow the sport," he said.

Sabalenka 100 per cent ready for Roland Garros despite clay struggles

Sabalenka insisted she has fully shaken off the physical woes that derailed her French ‌Open preparations, despite arriving at Roland Garros without a semi-final appearance on clay this season.

Sabalenka's Grand Slam hopes had been clouded by ‌injury, and the Belarusian top seed managed just four wins from six matches on clay this season, a ​stark contrast to her dominant 26-1 win-loss record before this year's claycourt swing began.

Her struggles included a shock third-round exit at the Italian Open, ​where she complained of lower back and hip problems, but the 28-year-old ‌said that taking some time off had worked wonders for her recovery.

"I struggled in the beginning of the claycourt (swing) ​physically, but right now I feel 100 per cent," Sabalenka told reporters.

"We did a great recovery. We focused on recovery and made sure that I'm healed everywhere and I'm ready to ​go. Right now, physically I'm ready to go."

She has played just six matches on clay, but Sabalenka brushed off concerns about her limited time on court, insisting experience trumped match practice.

"I think all of us are here just for one reason, doesn't ‌matter if I didn't play a lot of matches on the claycourt," Sabalenka added.

"I know how to play on clay, and it's all about being physically and mentally healthy, to go for ‌it, and to be ready to fight."

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