French Open 2026: Players to cut short pre-tournament media after 15 mins as pay row goes on

The world's leading tennis players plan to limit their pre-French Open media commitments to 15 minutes in protest at the prize money on offer. As first reported, external by The Guardian, the players could walk out of news conferences or broadcast interviews at Roland Garros this Friday and Saturday when the 15 minutes is up. The 15-minute limit is meant to symbolise the 15% of revenue which - broadly speaking - the Grand Slams allocate to prize money. The strategy has been communicated to most of the top 200 singles players, but representatives of the players accept they are free to make their own decisions. The men's and women's top-10 players are demanding a higher percentage of the revenue generated by the four Grand Slams, as well as benefit contributions and a greater say in areas such as scheduling. This year's French Open prize money has increased by 9.5%, but the annual increase was 20% at last year's US Open and nearly 16% at January's Australian Open.