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Strike action possible as tennis millionaires "cry poor"
Emily Benammar • January 20th, 2026 10:50 am
The world’s best tennis players will not rule out going on strike if their prizemoney demands are not met amid increasing dissatisfaction with how revenue is distributed.
This year’s Australian Open boasts a record breaking $111.5 million in prizemoney - including $4.5m for the winners - and while the increase from 2025 has been acknowledge by players, they insist more needs to be done.
World No. 3 Coco Gauff has been particularly vocal on the matter with she and her peers feeling they are not being adequately rewarded amid a significant rise in the commercialisation of the sport.
“I mean, as of right now, honestly, I haven't heard any rumours or things like that about that being a possibility,” the American said on Monday when asked if she thought players would protest.
“I do know players are going to put more pressure on the slams if certain things aren't being met to where we see it.
“But I don't know. I feel like that will have to be a collective decision that we would all have to talk about, which we talked about to where we all are collectively agreed to what we pushed on so far.
“Now when it comes to what actions would be taken to maybe put more pressure, that is a possibility. But as of right now, I haven't heard anything of that happening.”
Players are demanding a 22 per cent share of total revenue by 2030, with the Australian Open currently offering somewhere in the region of 16 per cent based on their 2025 earnings of $697.2 million.
Aus Open director Craig Tiley this week told the Australian financial Review that the Australian Open’s revenue share is actually closer to the desired 22 percent given that $150m of their revenue came from other events.
There are also calls for a pool of money to be provided by the four slams to go towards super, healthcare and maternity cover.
According to reports, this would mean a further cash injection of $16 million per slam.
Australia’s Alex de Minaur said tennis has a responsibility to ensure they were rewarding athletes in line with other major sports.
The Premier League gives 60 per cent of revenue to players while the NFL and NBA sit around the 50 per cent mark.
“There is obviously a lot of these discussions,” De Minaur said after his first round win on Monday. “It ultimately comes down to perspective, right? It's not about headlines. It's not about we're demanding more and that we're being greedy, right?
“That's some of the things that potentially the media grasps on, and that's their headlines, but it's all about perspective. What we're fighting for is to better our sport and ultimately for the players to be better compensated.
“Saying this, we are incredibly well-compensated as of right now, but when you look at the percentages and the differences between other sports, then of course there is room to grow.
“I think that's what we're trying to get to ultimately, to a point where we're all helping each other grow this beautiful sport. We have seen it grow over the years immensely.
“Ultimately, I think it's going to be for the best for both the players and the tours and everyone in this sport if we all sit down in a room and we kind of find ways to keep on improving and we keep the communication going. That's basically all.”
The optics of the demands didn’t sit well for Kane Cornes who said players will be seen as “crying poor” in the court of public opinion unless they are seen to be fighting for the lower ranked players that struggle to make ends meet.
“This is not a battle the players are going to win over the public,” he said on SEN Breakfast.
“Threatening strike action? Come on. A lot of you are multi-millionaires. Coco and Demon don’t need them to be the face of it, fine if they’re fighting for those underneath them but generally with these things the rich get richer.
“In the NBA it’s spread, there is a salary cap. Minimum salaries of the rookies increases. In tennis – if they get their raise – Gauff goes from $30m to $90m and poor old world number 415 gets nothing.
“This is the language that needs to be used; talk about players on the satellite tours that get exploited, this is what Demon - who at 26 has $23m in prizemoney - needs to tell the public.
“They need to be fighting for the other players not for themselves. The way I read Coco’s comments and Alex’s, it’s about them. The money needs to be filtered down. History would say the tennis players need to win the public over.”
