Wimbledon 2026: Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner among players to resume full media duties after prize money protest
Leading tennis players have agreed to resume full media duties at Wimbledon from Monday following weekend negotiations with the All England Club over prize money demands.
Players including Aryna Sabalenka, Jannik Sinner and Coco Gauff had initially limited pre-tournament media appearances to 15 minutes in protest. The tactic symbolised the percentage of revenue that Grand Slams broadly pay out in prize money.
Following constructive meetings between player representatives and All England Club leadership, they confirmed they would resume normal tournament media duties. This decision was based on Wimbledon's commitment to return with specific proposals addressing all three points of the players' submission: prize money formula, player welfare contributions and enhanced representation.
"I hope we're not going to get to this boycotting again," said Sabalenka. "We do it for the tour we don't do it for ourselves. We do it for the rest of the players who are suffering to even hire a coach."
The All England Club announced a record prize money increase of 20 per cent, bringing the total prize fund to £64.2m, the largest annual uplift in the tournament's history. However, players argue this remains inadequate. They are demanding 22 per cent of tournament revenues be paid as prize money, compared to the current 14.4 per cent at Wimbledon. The ATP and WTA Tours allocate approximately 22 per cent of revenues to prize money.
"Maybe what we did at Roland Garros partly helped us to push Wimbledon," said defending men's champion Jannik Sinner.
Not all players participated in the protest. Novak Djokovic declined to take part, while Australian Alex de Minaur and American Ben Shelton also chose not to join. Shelton stated Wimbledon "has always treated me well here. They've always treated me well here. I think they have made an effort."
The underlying matters remain unresolved, with players to carefully evaluate Wimbledon's proposals once received.