Gauff, Sabalenka say players should receive higher percentage of tournament revenue
Neither woman has looked in detail at the PTPA’s lawsuit against the ATP and WTA but say more money would be a fair result
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Neither Coco Gauff nor Aryna Sabalenka have looked in any depth at the PTPA’s lawsuit against the governing bodies in tennis, with Gauff saying she found out about it at the same time as the general public.
But both women had no hesitation in revealing the improvement they would like to see in the sport; more money. Specifically, a greater percentage of tournament revenue in prize money.
“I honestly don’t have a lot of information on that whole thing, to be honest,” she told reporters at the Miami Open on Thursday. “I found out when everyone else did, so I don’t have any information on it that I can share but I’m from all for trying to make the sport better, but I don’t know the details of it. I just saw it on Instagram two days ago.
“For me, I guess the biggest thing would be more of a percentage of the revenue in prize money.”
Sabalenka: “I think that’s fair enough”
The PTPA is accusing the ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA of operating a cartel, stopping more prize money from coming into the game. At Grand Slams, players receive around 15 percent of tournament revenue.
World No 1 Sabalenka said exactly the same thing, having revealed that she didn’t want to look at the details of the lawsuit in case it distracted her from her tennis this fortnight.
“Something I would like to see is not only WTA players, but all of the players getting probably more percentage they’re making out of the tounaments, the slams especially,” Sabalenka said. “I think that’s fair enough and if we look at other sports, I think the percentage goes completely differently. That’s the only wish I have.”
“I can’t sit here and complain; I get paid pretty well to do what I love”
Despite her wishes, Gauff admitted she was well compensated as an athlete.
“I also can’t sit here and complain,” she said. “I’m a professional athlete, I get paid pretty well to do what I love. The amount of work isn’t equal to the reward – I’m an athlete, there’s people who much harder things in this world.
“So yes, if you want to compare it to other sports, then yes, but if you want to compare it to other things in life, I’m not going to sit here and complain.”
And Gauff said she would like to see more parity between men and women across the Tours, in addition to the Grand Slams, who already offer equal prize money.
“Obviously for the women’s side of things making as many tournaments as we can equal to the men when it comes to prize money,” she said. “There’s a whole other thing when it comes to visibility and things like that we can also improve on.”
