Continuing a sporting trend, the International Tennis Federation is now World Tennis
LONDON, June 25: Top tennis players at Wimbledon will extend their protest over prize money by limiting their media appearances at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament next week.
The decision means the players will only talk to media for 15 minutes after each match during the first week of the tournament.
The protest began at this year’s French Open where players complained that the total prize money only made up 14.3% of the clay-court tournament’s revenue.
Wimbledon responded by hiking its total prize money by 20 percent this year – with the singles champions to get 3.6 million pounds ($4.75 million) each.
However, a statement put out Wednesday by an advisory firm representing the players said the “direct action protest” will continue during the first week at the All England Club.
“Players will limit their contractual media commitments at the tournament to 15 minutes – reflecting that Wimbledon currently pays slightly below 15% of revenues to players as prize money – for the duration of the first week of the Championships,” the statement said.
“Following detailed consultation with players across both tours, player representatives have written to Wimbledon’s leadership to inform them of the planned action, while acknowledging the welcome recent 20% increase in prize money compared to last year’s Championships.”
The statement said the the players’ share of Wimbledon’s projected revenues this year is 14.4%, which would be below the 14.9% share they received 10 years ago.
The players had written a proposal last year asking for 16% of revenues.
The statement did not specify which players would take part in the protest.
At the French Open, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek were among the top-10 ranked women who limited their media appearances, as did men’s No. 1 Jannik Sinner. However, Novak Djokovic did not take part in the protest.
In announcing Wimbledon’s 20-percent increase in prize money two weeks ago, All England Club chair Deborah Jevans said she hoped it would satisfy the players.
“We’ve demonstrated that we’ve looked at every round, including qualifying,” Jevans said at the time. “My hope is that the players do recognize what a significant increase that this is.”
ITF IS NOW WORLD TENNIS
The International Tennis Federation is changing its name to World Tennis.
The organization oversees the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup team competitions, as well as tennis at the Olympics and Paralympics.
“Today is an opportunity to redefine our role at the heart of world tennis and pledge our commitment to ensuring a strong, sustainable future for this brilliant sport,” World Tennis president David Haggerty said Thursday. “World Tennis reflects who we are, our global footprint and unique mandate.” Other international sport federations have made similar name changes in recent years, such as World Athletics, World Aquatics, World Gymnastics and World Rugby.
The name switch was ratified last October by member national tennis associations voting at the governing body’s annual general meeting.London-based World Tennis works together with the ATP and WTA Tours and the four Grand Slam tournaments – the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open – to organize the professional side of the sport. (PTI)
