The prize money on offer at Grand Slams became a widely-debated topic over the last few years. Players believe that they are being severely underpaid and have taken matters into their own hands. A collection of top 10 ATP and WTA players gave a strong statement against the mere 9.5% increase in prize money for the upcoming French Open. While the Grand Slam is yet to respond to this, former ATP Pro Sam Querrey believes that players need to boycott the tournament.

He first broke down the financial disparities that is driving the players to go to such lengths and even compared it to other leagues like the NFL, NBA and NHL. The figures show that there is a huge gap between revenue and player compensation when it comes to the Roland Garros and it is increasing every year.

“The winner this year gets 2.8 million euros. Roland Garros generated 395 million euros last year. [That] is a 14% year-on-year increase, yet prize money only rose by 5.4%. So, the players get a total of 14.3% of total revenue. For reference, we talk about prize money on this show a lot. Like the NBA, NFL, NHL, it’s around a 50% revenue split,” Querrey said on the ‘Nothing Major Show’.

The former World No. 11 argued that releasing statements to the media isn’t going to help the players’ cause. He instead believes that the French Open will give in to their demands if they decide to not participate.

“I get the whole dynamic is different. But at some point here, until the players just boycott, they have to just stop complaining, right? If the players didn’t play Roland Garros and be like, ‘We’re not going to play it,’ I literally believe the prize money would shoot up to 25% of revenue share,” he added.

Additionally, former World No. 21, Steve Johnson also weighed in on the matter and fully agreed with Querrey’s point-of-view. However, he also feels that organizing a strike isn’t going to be easy. This is because unlike NFL or NBA, there aren’t any strong player associations in tennis.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s the only way to do it, right? Because at a major… if you include qualifying, there’s 300 and there’s 400 people that would need to in unison do something together, which will never happen,” he said.

In the statement that the players had given against the French Open, they pointed out the Grand Slam had generated $463 million last year, which was a 14% increase in comparison to the previous figures. Despite the huge growth in revenue, the prize money purse was only increased by 5.4%.

It is safe to say that there is a lot of frustration among the players due to the drastically low percentage of revenue that is being shared with them. Due to this, some headline players are even ready to boycott competitions in the coming future if their demands aren’t met.

Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka in favor of boycotting tournaments

Among these players is none other than World No. 4, Coco Gauff. She highlighted that even the highly-ranked players aren’t getting many benefits and aren’t paid well in comparison to the top players in other sports.

“It’s not about me. It’s about the future of our sport and the current players who aren’t getting as much benefits as even some of the top players are getting. When you look at the 50 to 100, 50 to 200 [top-ranked players], how much money each Slam makes, it’s kind of unfortunate where the 200 best tennis players are living paycheck to paycheck, whereas other sports it’s not even a discussion,” Gauff told reporters at the Italian Open.

Aryna Sabalenka echoed this sentiment and pointed out the important role of players in the tournaments that are organized throughout the year.

“Without us there wouldn’t be a tournament and there wouldn’t be that entertainment. I feel like definitely we deserve to be paid more percentage,” Sabalenka said during a press conference.

The World No. 1 also had a clear warning in store and said that if the Grand Slams do not meet the players’ demands, then they can even consider boycotting tournaments in the coming future.

“I think at some point we will boycott it, yeah. I feel like that’s going to be the only way to fight for our rights. Let’s ‌see how far we can get, if it’s going ‌to take players for boycott… Some of the things, I feel like it’s really unfair to the players. I think at some point it’s going to get to this,” she added.

Will the Grand Slams give in to the demands and significantly increase the prize money on offer, or will the players need to boycott tournaments so that their voices can finally be heard? Let us know what you think in the comments!