ARYNA SABALENKA WARNS "NO SHOW WITHOUT US" DURING FIERY ITALIAN OPEN PRESSER
Aryna Sabalenka and top tennis stars threaten a French Open boycott over a disappointing 15% tournament revenue prize pool split.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka isn’t holding back; she’s openly considering a Grand Slam boycott if players keep feeling shortchanged on prize money.
She spoke out on Tuesday at the Italian Open, fresh off the heels of a letter sent by top ATP and WTA players who called the French Open’s prize pool disappointing. These players think their pay just doesn’t line up with tournament revenues, which keep going up.
“Look, without us, there’s no tournament, no show,” Sabalenka said. “At some point, I think we’ll have to boycott. It feels like that’s the only card left to play if we want to stand up for ourselves.”
She also thinks the women’s side of the game could unite like never before. “Right now, we girls could definitely come together for this; things are going on that just aren’t fair to the players. Sooner or later, I see it happening.”
Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina, current French and Australian Open champs, threw their weight behind Sabalenka. Gauff said she “100%” sees a boycott happening if the players agree. She pointed out that this isn’t just about stars like herself. “It’s about the future, and the players grinding outside the top 50 or 100. When you look at how much money Slams make, it’s crazy that players ranked 200 are still living paycheck to paycheck, which isn’t even a conversation in most other major sports.”
For context, the French Open’s 2026 prize pool will be $72.3 million, up $6.5 million from 2025. But that's still only about 15% of expected tournament revenue, down from 15.5% last year. Players want a 22% cut by 2030, which is what they get at joint ATP and WTA 1000 events like Indian Wells or the Italian Open.
There’s another twist: prize money for players who lose in the first three rounds at Roland-Garros went up 11%, but for the champs, it only went up 9.8%. The French Tennis Federation said it wanted to help early-round losers more.
Compare that to American pro leagues: NFL, NBA, and MLB players get close to half of league revenue. Even WNBA players will get 20% after their new CBA, up from 9.3%.
In their letter, the players said they’re “getting a shrinking piece of the value they help create.” They also called out Grand Slam tournaments for being slow to modernise or give players a stronger voice.
Twenty players, including Sabalenka, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Gauff, signed onto that letter. They’ve already sent similar requests to all four Slams before asking for bigger revenue shares, a Grand Slam Player Council, and better benefits like pensions and health coverage.
World No. 3 Iga Świątek isn’t quite ready to back a boycott: she said at the Italian Open that it sounded “a bit extreme.” She’d rather see real talks between players and tennis authorities and some space to negotiate.
ATP No. 6 Ben Shelton hadn’t heard much about a potential strike, but he wants more player voice and actual seats at the decision-making table.
These latest demands echo moves from the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), which Djokovic co-founded. The PTPA filed an antitrust lawsuit against the tours and all four Slams, seeking more revenue and other benefits. That case settled with Tennis Australia in late 2025.
So far, no one from the Grand Slam tournaments has responded to any of this.
JANNIK SINNER DESTROYS ZVEREV IN MADRID TO WIN FIFTH STRAIGHT MASTERS TITLE
Explore the data behind Sinner’s 28-match win streak and his quest to sweep all nine Masters titles at the upcoming Italian Open.
All week in Madrid, Jude Bellingham and Thibaut Courtois kept popping up in the stands at the Caja Mágica. They really seemed to be enjoying the matches, but they had to skip Sunday’s final. Real Madrid had their own business at Espanyol that night. Honestly, they didn’t miss much. Jannik Sinner needed just 57 minutes to obliterate Alexander Zverev in the second-fastest Masters 1000 final ever (if you don’t count retirements). Blink, and you’d miss it.
Numbers tell the whole tale here. Sinner just became the first guy to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row. That’s a streak that began last season in Paris and now covers Indian Wells and Miami on hard courts, plus Monte Carlo and Madrid on clay. Not even Djokovic, Nadal, or Federer pulled this off in their best years.
Sinner’s last real Masters loss? A third-round retirement in Shanghai. Now he’s on a 28-match win streak at Masters events. When he heads home for the Italian Open in Rome, he'll have a shot at topping Federer’s best run (29) and chasing Djokovic’s record of 31 straight wins. If he takes his first title in Rome, he’ll join Djokovic as the only men to sweep all nine current Masters tournaments. And after all that, Sinner just shrugged and said he doesn’t play for records. Imagine if he did.
Zverev, once again, had to find the words to sum up Sinner’s dominance, and honestly, it sounded bleak for everyone else in the draw. “Today I would have lost to anybody, to be very fair. I think today I played an awful tennis match,” Zverev admitted. And then: “There’s a big gap between Sinner and everybody else. And there’s a big gap between Alcaraz, me, maybe Novak, and everybody else. There are two gaps right now.”
That’s not encouraging for the competition, especially with Sinner heading to Roland Garros as the top favourite for a Grand Slam since Djokovic’s dominant Wimbledon run four years ago. Carlos Alcaraz, last year’s Paris champ, is out with a wrist injury, so Zverev becomes the second seed. But Zverev just got destroyed, 6-1, 6-2, in his best clay final, and he sounded convinced Sinner is a class apart. Sure, Djokovic beat Sinner at the Australian Open, but he hasn’t played since March, and he’s about to turn 39.
You really have to give Sinner credit for this run. It’s not flashy, but his consistency, resetting point by point, staying sharp every week, is rare. Tennis makes it hard to stay locked in, and everyone would do it if it were easy.
Sinner downplays the records and comparisons. “I cannot compare myself with Rafa, Roger, Novak,” he said in Madrid. “What they did is something incredible. I don’t play for these records. I play for myself, for my team, because they know what’s behind the scenes. Also, my family never changed because of my success… Sure, these are great numbers, but it takes discipline and sacrifice.”
He keeps it grounded: "There are daily routines. I’m the one who has to wake up and be ready every morning. I love the journey. I want to give myself the best chance to be my best. Not for records. What those greats did and what Novak still does is incredible. I can’t compare to them.”
But nobody can argue with what Sinner’s doing right now. He kicked off the season by becoming the first to win the Indian Wells-Miami double without dropping a set. He caught Alcaraz and took the No. 1 spot back in Monte Carlo. Now, with Alcaraz sidelined, Sinner’s got a real shot at making a historic run through Rome and Roland Garros. Outside of Djokovic, the rest just don’t seem to matter at the moment.
ITALIAN OPEN SEEDS FINALIZED WITH SABALENKA, RYBAKINA, AND GAUFF LEADING ENTRY LIST
Jasmine Paolini defends her Italian Open title against a field led by Swiatek and Sabalenka, with massive ranking points at stake.
The Italian Open is the next big stop in the WTA 1000 clay season, right after Madrid. Here, Jasmine Paolini and Coco Gauff have a lot riding on their performances – lots of ranking points at stake. Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek, though, have a little more breathing room when it comes to their points.
Madrid wrapped up recently, with Marta Kostyuk taking down Mirra Andreeva to grab her first title at this level. There’s barely been time to catch a breath, but the action picks right back up in Rome on May 5. The top seeds won’t play until the second round, which gives them a little extra rest.
Aryna Sabalenka is the No. 1 seed. Behind her, you’ve got Rybakina, Gauff, Swiatek, Pegula, Anisimova, Svitolina, Andreeva, Paolini, and Victoria Mboko rounding out the top 10. Thanks to her big win in Madrid, Kostyuk is up to a career-high No. 15. Still, since Rome’s seedings were finalised on April 20, she’ll be seeded 23rd.
Let’s talk about points and what’s at risk in Rome. The WTA ranking system looks back over the past 52 weeks; it adds the points you earn now and subtracts the ones from the same tournament a year ago, right as the new event kicks off.
Jasmine Paolini has 1,000 points to defend; she’s the reigning champion. Her ranking has dropped to No. 9, and unless she makes another deep run, she could fall out of the top 10 after Rome.
Coco Gauff is defending 650 points from last year’s runner-up finish. After Madrid, she slipped out of her No. 3 spot and could slide a bit more if she doesn’t go far in Rome.
Zheng Qinwen has 390 points on the line from her semi-final run last year, where she shocked top seed Sabalenka. Coming off a long injury, she’s still trying to get back to full strength. Dropping those points will probably push her out of the top 50.
Peyton Stearns, now ranked 50th, is in a similar spot; she made the semis last year with wins over some big names but needs points to hold her spot.
Sabalenka, Svitolina, Andreeva, and Shnaider are all defending 215 points after quarter-final runs. If Sabalenka goes out early and Rybakina has a deep run, the gap between them at the very top could shrink a lot.
Kostyuk, Osaka, Raducanu, and Ostapenko have 120 points each to defend from last year’s fourth round. Kostyuk especially has a shot to break into the top 10 with another great showing, while Raducanu needs points if she wants a seeded spot at Roland Garros.
Victoria Mboko worked her way through qualifying last year and then lost early, picking up 65 points in Rome and earning more at another event. This year, she’s already set for some points before Rome even begins.
Iga Swiatek, six-time major champ, leads Gauff by 199 points going into Rome, and once last year’s points come off, that lead jumps to 784. Swiatek lost early in Rome last year, so she’s only dropping 65 points.
Alex Eala only has 10 points to defend after a first-round exit. She’ll get those back just by playing this year, but if she wants to be seeded for the French Open, she needs a strong run.
For Elena Rybakina, it’s simple; she doesn’t lose any points from last year since the Italian Open isn’t one of her countable events this time. So Sabalenka starts Rome with a 1,340-point lead over her. But if Rybakina wins in Rome and Sabalenka loses early, that lead shrinks to just over 300 points heading into Roland Garros. Things could get interesting.
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