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Do tennis players really only take 15 percent of Grand Slam revenues? / Photo: © AFP
Do tennis players really only take 15 percent of Grand Slam revenues?
Many of the world's tennis stars will protest against perceived low prize money when they gather at Roland Garros for media duties ahead of the French Open which begins on Sunday.
The protest is over the fact that, in the eyes of the players, they do not take home enough prize money, claiming they only collect 15 percent of the revenues from Grand Slam events. They are looking for 22 percent.
It is always difficult to compare tournaments, since financial data is not systematically published and the indicators used to measure revenues vary from one tournament to another.
However, the figures appear to suggest that the players aren't even coming close to the 15 percent threshold.
Australian Open
According to the latest annual report from Tennis Australia, which organises the first Grand Slam of the season in Melbourne, revenues amounted to 590.45 million Australian dollars ($421.13 million) between September 2023 and September 2024, before jumping to 692.69 million Australian dollars for the 2024–2025 financial year.
Over the same period, they paid out 86.5 million Australian dollars in prize money to participants in the 2024 edition, and 96.5 million Australian dollars in 2025.
The share of Tennis Australia's revenues redistributed to participants therefore fell year-on-year, from 14.65 percent in 2024 to 13.93 percent in 2025.
French Open
In 2024, the 53.48 million euros ($62.03 million) in prize money represented 15.47 percent of the roughly 346 million euros in revenue generated by Roland-Garros, according to the minutes of the general assembly of the French Tennis Federation.
In the same document, the FFT forecast revenue of 390.5 million euros for the 2025 edition. No estimate of the actual revenue generated by the last Roland Garros has been published since.
The 56.35 million euros in prize money planned for 2025 corresponds to 14.4 percent of the revenue projected by the FFT before the tournament.
The trend is therefore the same as for the Australian Open: the percentage of revenue redistributed to players decreased between 2024 and 2025 with both now below the 15 percent mark.
Wimbledon
The 2025 accounts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which organises the Wimbledon tournament, show an increase in its revenue between 2024 and 2025 from £406.51 million ($545.60 million) to £423.63 million.
Over the same period, the prize money increased year-on-year from £50 million to £53.5 million.
Unlike the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, the percentage of AELTC revenues redistributed to players therefore rose slightly from 12.3 percent in 2024 to 12.63 percent in 2025 - although it remains well below the 15 percent mark.
US Open
According to the latest financial report from the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the US Open's operating revenues climbed from $514.1 million in 2023 to $559.66 million in 2024.
Prize money increased by $10 million year-on-year, rising from $65 million in 2023 to $75 million in 2024.
Participants in the New York Grand Slam therefore received 12.64 percent of the tournament's operating revenues in 2023 and 13.4 percent a year later.
Another increase, therefore, but underlining that all four Grand Slams are some way below the 15 percent line.
Z.Tomaszewski--GL
