Aryna Sabalenka has led the charge for top players on the ATP and WTA Tours asking for a fairer distribution of prize money at Grand Slams.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, along with the likes of Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina, have claimed they are ready to boycott major tournaments to try and help lesser-ranked players who they feel do not earn their fair share in revenue from Grand Slams.<\/p>\n
While a boycott did not happen at Roland Garros this year, the argument continues to rumble on and there is a definite chance it could happen in the near future.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka<\/a> defeated Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in straight sets to confirm her first victory at Roland Garros<\/a> this year, and earn a place in the second round.<\/p>\n During her Roland Garros press conference after picking up her first victory at the Paris Grand Slam, Sabalenka was asked what she thought about critics of her boycott talking dubbing her \u2018hypocritical\u2019 for asking for more money.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen a few people making maybe a comparison between you calling for extra prize money and then wearing very expensive diamonds. Do you see in any way how that could be seen as possibly hypocritical?\u201d asked a journalist in Paris.<\/p>\n WTA Rankings: How Elena Rybakina can overtake Aryna Sabalenka at No 1 after French Open<\/a><\/p>\n Are top tennis stars getting it wrong in the point in bitter stand-off over prize money?<\/a><\/p>\n Sabalenka was visibly taken aback by the question and offered a retort to the journalist.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really see how it can be possible to cross these two completely different worlds. And as I said before, prize money, it\u2019s not like it\u2019s about me at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just fighting for players, lower ranked players who are really struggling to survive in this tennis world. It has nothing to do with me that I\u2019m fighting for the prize money. Everyone knows that I\u2019m okay.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just that we are fighting for a fair amount fair percentage out of the revenues and also for the lower ranked, players coming back after injuries, the next generation to be more comfortable coming into the top 10. So it\u2019s not about me.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabalenka previously cut her first Roland Garros press conference short<\/a>, as a joint protest from the players across the men\u2019s and women\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n Explaining the decision, Sabalenka said:\u201dI\u2019m here to talk to you because I have respect for you guys. We just wanted to make our point and we are united \u2013 15 minutes is better than zero. 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 Sabalenka will await the winner of the first round tie between Linda Fruhvirtov\u00e1 and Elsa Jacquemot for her second round match. She has been placed in the same section of the draw as Iva Jovic<\/a>, Naomi Osaka<\/a>, and Emma Navarro<\/a> at the French Grand Slam.<\/p>\n The post Aryna Sabalenka responds to claims she\u2019s being \u2018hypocritical\u2019 for asking for more prize money<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka has led the charge for top players on the ATP and WTA Tours asking for a fairer distribution of prize money at Grand Slams. Sabalenka, along with the likes of Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina, have claimed they are ready to boycott major tournaments to try and help lesser-ranked players who they feel […]<\/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-2239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239","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=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Aryna Sabalenka news<\/h2>\n