John McEnroe said tennis players should boycott one or two tournaments in order to secure a larger share of Grand Slam revenues. The players are targeting a 22% share of tournament revenues by 2030. Stars such as Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka limited the time they devoted to the media at the French Open and Wimbledon as a form of protest.
Speaking at the Laver Cup in London, McEnroe said players should have a stake in the major tournaments and criticized their current share of the revenues. Acknowledging that Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and the French Open are successful events, McEnroe nevertheless said players should share in that success.
McEnroe also advocated the use of match tie-breaks instead of a 5th set at Grand Slam tournaments to address long matches and schedules that run late into the night. Saying that some of the matches he commentated on had lasted more than 5 hours, McEnroe said he did not want players still to be on court in the early hours of the morning after the match between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz, which ended at 03.33.
Why it matters
This debate shows that tennis players are making headlines not only for their performances on court but also for their position within the economic and administrative structure of tournaments. Players’ desire to have a stronger say in revenue sharing directly affects the balance of negotiations between Grand Slam organizers and athletes; the option of a boycott, meanwhile, shifts the tension from individual statements to a debate over collective action. Sinner and Sabalenka limiting their media obligations shows that the protest has spread to different aspects of the players’ tournament experience. The match tie-break proposal, independently of the issue of revenue, also opens up a discussion about the impact of long matches on player health, broadcast schedules and the spectator experience. The unresolved question is whether the players can develop a common position and how the tournaments will respond to these demands.