LONDON (AP) — Top tennis players at Wimbledon will extend their protest over prize money by limiting their media appearances at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament next week.
The decision means the players will only talk to media for 15 minutes after each match during the first week of the tournament.
The protest began at this year’s French Open where players complained that the total prize money only made up 14.3% of the clay-court tournament’s revenue.
Wimbledon responded by hiking its total prize money by 20 percent this year — with the singles champions to get 3.6 million pounds ($4.75 million) each.
However, a statement put out Wednesday by an advisory firm representing the players said the “direct action protest” will continue during the first week at the All England Club.
“Players will limit their contractual media commitments at the tournament to 15 minutes — reflecting that Wimbledon currently pays slightly below 15% of revenues to players as prize money — for the duration of the first week of the Championships,” the statement said. “Following detailed consultation with players across both tours, player representatives have written to Wimbledon’s leadership to inform them of the planned action, while acknowledging the welcome recent 20% increase in prize money compared to last year’s Championships.”
The statement said the the players’ share of Wimbledon’s projected revenues this year is 14.4%, which would be below the 14.9% share they received 10 years ago.
The players had written a proposal last year asking for 16% of revenues.
The statement did not specify which players would take part in the protest.
At the French Open, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek were among the top-10 ranked women who limited their media appearances, as did men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner. However, Novak Djokovic did not take part in the protest.
In announcing Wimbledon’s 20-percent increase in prize money two weeks ago, All England Club chair Deborah Jevans said she hoped it would satisfy the players.
“We’ve demonstrated that we’ve looked at every round, including qualifying,” Jevans said at the time. “My hope is that the players do recognize what a significant increase that this is.” ___
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