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ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London — The group of leading players pushing for prize-money changes at the Grand Slams will resume normal Wimbledon media duties after talks with senior All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) officials.
The group, which includes most of the men’s and women’s top-10s, such as Coco Gauff, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, said last week that it would limit its media commitments to 15 minutes per player during pre-tournament commitments and the first week of the event.
This was an escalation on a 15-minute limit imposed at last month’s French Open, which was in place for just the pre-tournament weekend.
But the Wimbledon protest lasted just two days, after AELTC chair Deborah Jevans, tournament director Jamie Baker and board member Tim Henman held talks with the group. Larry Scott, the former ATP Tour player and ex-WTA chief executive leading the player group, had not yet arrived in London but was in dialogue with the agents and across the negotiations.
According to a news release from the player group sent Monday, the All England Club pledged during the talks to return with specific proposals addressing three areas of reform: Increasing prize money to represent a greater share of tournament revenue; making contributions to a player welfare fund; and creating of a formal player council.
The financials have been the most headline-grabbing area of disagreement. Prize money at the four majors represents on average around 15 percent of tournament revenue; the players want that figure to be 22 percent by 2030, in line with ATP and WTA Tour norms. The group initially welcomed the All England Club announcing a few weeks ago that Wimbledon’s prize money would increase by 20 percent from $72.7 million (£55.1m at current rates) in 2025 to $85.8m this year.
It then wrong-footed the AELTC by announcing last week that the players would again be reducing media activity. “We are surprised and disappointed by this action,” a club spokesperson said in response.
Most of the players stuck to the limit — some like Sabalenka, Sinner and Gauff timed their news conferences particularly strictly — but others did not take part. Ben Shelton, the American No. 4 seed said in his news conference: “I decided to give more time on media day today because Wimbledon is a special place. They’ve always treated me well here. They let me come and train after the French Open, get on the grass. They helped me out my first year that I came out on tour.
“I think they have made an effort. I think that showed in the increase that they brought in prize money this year.”
Australia’s Alex de Minaur took a similar tack.
At a media briefing Monday, AELTC chief executive Sally Bolton described the conversations over the weekend, which followed talks with Scott during last month’s French Open, as “really fruitful,” adding that financial discussions are set to develop.
“We’ve been requesting financial information from their representatives for quite some time. He (Scott) is going to provide that. And once we’ve got that financial information, we’ve had the chance to have a look at it, we can re-engage with those discussions after the Championships.”
The club has said that it does not believe revenue is an appropriate figure from which to calculate Wimbledon prize money, and French Open tournament director Amélie Mauresmo expressed similar reservations at Roland Garros.
“Revenue does not take into account the investment that we give. And as I’ve spoken about, we’re not for-profit, we’re very different to a 1,000 (the ATP and WTA tournaments one rung below the Grand Slams) event. Everything goes back into the sport. I am frustrated that that message hasn’t got across,” Jevans said at a pre-tournament briefing this month.
Wimbledon has a profit-share agreement with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which oversees British tennis, in which it distributes 90 percent of annual tournament profits to the association. Last year’s profit was £52.7 million ($70.4m). Like the other three majors, Wimbledon also invests in tournament infrastructure and grassroots tennis as well as player prize money.
The calling off of the protest, which Bolton said was not driven by pressure from broadcast partners, may only be a temporary détente.
Attention will quickly turn to the U.S. Open, the final Grand Slam of the year which takes place in August and September, and particularly the prize money on offer. Talks are scheduled between player group representatives and those from the United States Tennis Association (USTA) at Wimbledon next week. A person briefed on the group’s plans said last week that further escalations are possible from the players if those conversations don’t go well. They said these could include withdrawals from the mixed-doubles event at Flushing Meadows and curtailing contracted media obligations with ESPN.
Representatives for the USTA did not respond to a request for comment.
On the court, Wimbledon, which started Monday, finishes Sunday, July 12.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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