Aryna Sabalenka abruptly ended her pre-tournament French Open press conference after it emerged that several leading tennis stars would significantly limit their media duties in an attempt to increase pressure on the Grand Slams over prize money.<\/p>\n
The Belarusian enters Roland Garros as one of the favourites after reaching the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Miami earlier this season.<\/p>\n
However, Sabalenka\u2019s<\/a> clay-court campaign has proven inconsistent. She suffered a shock defeat to Hailey Baptiste in the Madrid Open quarter-finals despite holding multiple match points, before being knocked out by Sorana Cirstea in the third round of the Italian Open.<\/p>\n During the loss in Rome, Sabalenka also required a medical timeout due to back discomfort, sparking concerns over her fitness heading into Paris.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, after two weeks of rest, the world No 1 now returns in search of a maiden French Open title as the tournament\u2019s top seed.<\/p>\n During her pre-tournament press conference, Sabalenka made headlines after revealing that she would limit her media duties to just 15 minutes.<\/p>\n The decision, which has also been adopted by several other leading players, comes amid an ongoing dispute surrounding Grand Slam prize money and player compensation.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, guys, I feel like the whole point here, it\u2019s not about me,\u201d she began.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about the players who are lower in the ranking, who is suffering, and, yeah, it\u2019s not easy to live in this tennis world with that percentage that we are earning,\u201d Sabalenka stated.<\/p>\n \u201cBut as the World No 1, I feel like, you know, I have to stand up and to fight for those players, for lower-level players, for players who are coming back after injuries, the upcoming generation. I feel like our point is pretty clear and pretty fair to everyone. That\u2019s what we are all about.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not your decision, it\u2019s not about you. It\u2019s just we are trying to fight for a fair percentage.\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic confident he has \u2018options\u2019 to end Jannik Sinner run and win French Open after injury update<\/a><\/p>\n French Open 2026 men\u2019s draw: Djokovic handed early hurdles, whilst Sinner & Zverev headline<\/a><\/p>\n Indeed, during the Italian Open, Sabalenka suggested she could even consider boycotting future Grand Slam tournaments if the events failed to significantly improve prize money distribution.<\/p>\n Players involved in the discussions are reportedly pushing for the Grand Slams to allocate 22% of their overall revenue toward prize money by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n French Open organisers have defended their position by pointing to this year\u2019s total prize pool of \u20ac61.723 million, representing a 9.53% increase compared to last year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s US Open increased prize money by 20%, while this year\u2019s Australian Open introduced a 16% rise.<\/p>\n In addition to financial concerns, players have also raised issues regarding scheduling, ball changes, and healthcare contributions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just wanted to make our point, and we are united, and 15 minutes better than zero, and I\u2019m here to talk to you because I have my respect to you guys,\u201d added the Belarusian before ending the English portion of her press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess we just do 10 minutes here and five minutes \u2013 what is the five minutes that we did, World Feed? That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now it\u2019s time for national language, and thank you so much for being here, for asking questions. As I said a thousand times today, I have huge respect, but we know what\u2019s happening here, so thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek, a four-time French Open champion, has also backed the movement and followed the same 15-minute media limit.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like all of us, we have nothing against media, obviously, and we totally respect you guys. We know how our relationship is important,\u201d the Pole argued.<\/p>\n \u201cBut with the tournament, you know, I feel like we will do more when the tournament will do more for us.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only us, the top players, because obviously we are the ones that have the most contact with you guys, but, you know, for also the lower-ranked players and the whole structure, you know.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s personally, like, nothing against you guys, but for sure, this is the decision that we made, and we will follow it.\u201d<\/p>\n However, world No 4 Novak Djokovic revealed that while he sympathises with the players\u2019 concerns, he has not been involved in the internal discussions and therefore will not limit his own media appearances.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t been part of the process, the conversation, the planning or decision-making so I can\u2019t comment on that,\u201d the Serb said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what I can do is reiterate my own position that I have always been on the players\u2019 side and tried to advocate for players\u2019 rights and better future for players.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tend to forget how little the number of people that live from this sport is. I will never stop mentioning or talking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n The French Open will take place from May 24 to June 7.<\/p>\n The post Aryna Sabalenka abruptly ends French Open press conference as players weigh in on media duty scaleback<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka abruptly ended her pre-tournament French Open press conference after it emerged that several leading tennis stars would significantly limit their media duties in an attempt to increase pressure on the Grand Slams over prize money. The Belarusian enters Roland Garros as one of the favourites after reaching the finals of the Australian Open, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest Tennis News<\/h2>\n