Wimbledon 2026: Players to increase prize money protests despite 20% increase.
Top tennis players will extend their protest over prize money at Wimbledon – despite a 20% increase in this year’s pot.
Some players have limited pre-tournament media to 15 minutes at the recent French Open, but they will go one step further at Wimbledon.
Not only will they limit their time on the upcoming media weekend, but they also plan to limit post-game appearances to 15 minutes throughout the first week of the Tournament, which begins on Monday.
The 15-minute limit is intended to reflect the 15% of revenue that – broadly speaking – the Grand Slams allocate to prize money.
The players’ representatives said the decision was made “following detailed consultation with the players on both courses”.
In Paris, women’s world number one Aryna Sabalenka cut short her pre-tournament press conference, while the likes of Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek also followed the ‘dominant duty’ directive.
But Novak Djokovic, who always speaks up for the rights of the players, did not take part in this action.
The All England Club (AELTC) said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the move.
“Wimbledon puts the players at the heart of all our decisions and we invest heavily in them every year,” the club said.
“This comes alongside investing hundreds of millions of pounds in developing our player facilities as part of a three-year transformation to create a world-class playing field.”
Earlier this month the players welcomed Wimbledon’s 20% increase as “a real and significant step forward”.
The players issued a statement describing the announcement as “a meaningful statement of intent” – and also pointed out that it still falls short of the 16% of tournament revenue they are asking for from all Grand Slams this year.
The total prize fund for this year’s tournaments will be £64.2m, following the biggest annual increase in the event’s history.
The singles champions will take home £3.6m and the losers in the first round are paid £80,000.
But the total fund is still £7m short of the players’ expectations.
“We don’t look at percentages, we actually don’t believe that’s the right metric,” Deborah Jevans, chair of the AELTC, told BBC Sport earlier this month.
“It’s a single metric based on revenue and doesn’t consider any costs and we can’t run a business that way.
“We have costs – we talked about infrastructure and investment in lawn tennis.
“You can’t run a sustainable business, and we’ve been around for 150 years, just by looking at revenue. That’s just not fair.”
As well as campaigning for Slams to link prize money to tournament profits, players are also asking for donations to their benefit pool and a bigger say in how the events are run.
The players said they have not yet had a “sound response” from Wimbledon about the two issues.
The AELTC opposes that, and says it contacted the players at the end of last year to propose negotiations to establish a players’ council, which could discuss the issue of benefits.
The proposal was rejected by the players.
AELTC sources say they were expecting discussions about the players’ concerns at the end of the tournament, although they are not the only organization involved in the dispute.
The increase in prize money at the French Open was 9.5%, and player representatives said they expected the French Tennis Federation to present proposals on how to narrow the gap between the two teams on the night of Wimbledon.
There will also be talks with US Tennis Association officials as they finalize their prize money offer for the US Open, which starts on 30 August.
