Tennis stars from both the men’s and women’s tours have formally ended their year-long protests against the four Grand Slams over increased prize money. 

Their public objections have ceased after they secured a negotiating council to work with the majors directly.

Top players including Jannik Sinner, Jessica Pegula, Aryna Sabalenka, and Carlos Alcaraz joined the calls for prize money to reflect 22 per cent of each tournament’s revenue. Stars raised awareness with media boycotts. 

But with the conclusion of New York’s Grand Slam, the players involved have now announced the end of the ‘public phase’ of their campaign, following a number of staggering prize money hikes since the protests began.

Early positive discussions warded off disruptions in Melbourne, but at the French Open, players involved in the protests limited their media appearances to 15 minutes for press conferences and broadcast interviews, in a bid to highlight how the £53.3million prize pot was just 15 per cent of the tournament’s total revenue.

Additional protests were planned for Wimbledon and set to stretch from the media weekend into the first week of the Championships. 

Tennis stars have ended their ‘public’ protests over Grand Slam prize money 

Alexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina (above) won $5.5million (£4.08m) for their US Open titles – $500,000 more than the 2025 champions 

But following more positive communications between the two entities, and a year-on-year 20 per cent prize money boost – the biggest rise in its history, to £64.2million – these were called off at the 11th hour.

Wimbledon chair Debbie Jevans had previously brushed aside suggestions that the Championships’ prize pot could be sensibly linked to the tournament’s revenue due to its role in sharing profits with British grassroots tennis.

‘Revenue does not take into the investment that we give,’ she said in June. ‘We are not-for-profit, and very different to a Masters 1000.’

An eye-watering £79.2million ($108million) purse available to players in New York, as well as £1.47m ($2m) pledged towards a player welfare fund, took protests off the table for the final major of the year.

Shortly after that bumper rise was announced came news that the majors would form a Grand Slam Player Advisory Council to ‘serve as the forum for direct communication, feedback, and collaboration between the Grand Slams and the players’.

Although a founder of a separate organisation, the Professional Tennis Players Association – which he has since stepped away from – Novak Djokovic was not among the players to take part in the protests. Alcaraz is believed to have stepped away before the tournament began at Flushing Meadows.

Those involved in the protest, many of whom rake in millions in prize money and lucrative sponsorship deals, have taken pains to explain that they are not looking to boost their own coffers, but to ensure that lower-ranked players are able to fund their season with a Grand Slam appearance.

‘I don’t really see how it can be possible to cross these two completely different worlds. And as I said before, prize money, it’s not like it’s about me at all,’ Sabalenka said in Paris when asked how she could square sporting £120,000-worth of jewellery on-court with demanding greater riches.

‘It’s just fighting for players, lower ranked players who are really struggling to survive in this tennis world. It has nothing to do with me that I’m fighting for the prize money. Everyone knows that I’m okay.

‘It’s just that we are fighting for a fair amount fair percentage out of the revenues and also for the lower ranked, players coming back after injuries, the next generation to be more comfortable coming into the top-10. So it’s not about me.’