Will Roland Garros yield to the financial and professional demands of tennis professionals? | sports

Representatives of the best male and female tennis players held a “positive” meeting with the organizers of the French Roland Garros tournament to discuss amending the value of the financial prizes, according to what the French Federation of the Game announced today, Saturday.

The French Federation, represented by the director of Roland Garros, former world number one player Amelie Mauresmo, and others, met with representatives of male and female players yesterday, Friday, at the end of a media day affected by a boycott prior to the start of the French Open.

The federation said in a press statement: “The meeting allowed the French Tennis Federation and representatives of male and female players to conduct a positive and transparent exchange on a number of issues.”

He added: “Since these discussions require more time, all parties have agreed to continue the dialogue and hold another meeting in the coming weeks.”

A source close to the discussions told Agence France-Presse that the French Federation “agreed to negotiate directly with the players” participating in the protest, including the world’s top two seeds, Italian Jannik Sinner and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

As the organizer of the French Open, the second major tournament of the season, the French Federation “committed” to responding to the proposals of male and female players during the coming weeks, according to the same source.

Since March 2025, a group of approximately 20 of the world’s most prominent male and female players is currently trying to obtain a larger share of the revenues generated by major tournaments.

The players concerned are demanding a 22% share of these revenues by 2030, compared to about 15% currently.

To show their dissatisfaction, 20 of them reduced their media commitments to 15 minutes on Friday and Saturday, during the two days allocated for press conferences and pre-tournament interviews at Roland Garros.

Representatives of the best players in the world – most of whom are agents – are now scheduled to hold talks with the organizers of the Wimbledon and US Open tournaments in two separate meetings before the end of Roland Garros.

However, there is currently no meeting scheduled with the Australian Open organizers.

In addition to demanding a fairer distribution of revenues in the four major tournaments, the game’s stars are also calling for greater participation in key decisions related to these tournaments.

They are also demanding that these leagues invest more in the “well-being” of players, such as healthcare, maternity leave and pension systems.