i dont think the purpose of a boycott is to show how much ur "willing to sacrifice" i think it is to leverage the labour power that u have in order to emphasise the vitality of ur contributions and thus exert pressure, actually
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hii juno! this is something related to ur recent anon thought-post about the landscape of tennis journalism: ben rothenberg himself just reported via his substack that players are planning to boycott not rg itself, but the press conferences at the french open, as part of them advocating for higher percentage of the slam's revenue as price money.
....i think this would certainly bring attention to the matter but isnt it going to come at the cost of those journalists whose pieces rely heavily on these pre/post match/tournament conferences (recent talk/writing about it suggests theres quite few of them too).... i would love to hear ur thoughts on this!
-myra @ neverendingchaos
heyy myra, yes i did see this news but didn't realise rothenberg had also already written about it! thanks for drawing my attention - i had a read-through on a free trial subscription of his substack and theres a couple interesting points:
so firstly, the players aren't actually boycotting the entirety of press at rg26. at least, the current plan is in fact to stage a walk-out after 15 minutes of pre-tournament press which is meant to be symbolic of the 15% player revenue (well, 14.9% but rounding up).
Players selected to take part in Fridayâs opening press conference at Roland Garros will walk out after 15 minutes, symbolising the fact that the slams allocate an average of 15% of their revenues to prize money. The rest of the draw will refuse to conduct additional interviews with the tournamentâs main media rights partners, TNT Sports and Eurosport. (Source: The Guardian)
this raises a few immediate questions, most obviously - so what are they actually walking out of đđ because as ben rightfully makes note of, press conferences almost never actually hit the 15-minute mark anyway. based on talks with strategists, apparently they will be refusing to engage with commercial rightsholders, so basically what is mentioned above in the guardian article about not doing interviews for TNT and Eurosport. rothenberg also shared the statement sent out to press/media by the french federation of tennis (FFT) itself which i'll just put here too since its interesting, and other free articles only paraphrase:
We regret the playersâ decision, which impacts all of the tournamentâs stakeholders: the media, broadcasters, the FFT and the entire tennis community, all of whom follow each edition of Roland-Garros with great enthusiasm.
The French Tennis Federation recognises the importance of the playersâ contribution to the tournamentâs success, and wishes to maintain close ties with them. In early May, it proposed a meeting that will take place on Friday 22 May with some of their representatives.
The FFT is ready to engage in direct and constructive dialogue on governance issues, with a view to giving players a greater say in decision-making, contributing to playersâ welfare and evolutions in the value-sharing model.
The FFT would like to highlight the ongoing efforts made to improve player compensation:
Roland-Garros has continually increased its prize money in recent years; in 2026, it will amount to âŹ61.7M, roughly double what it was ten years ago.
The singlesâ winners will receive âŹ2.8M, an increase of âŹ250,000 compared with 2025, and +âŹ1M compared with 2015.
Beyond the prize money, a Grand Slam tournament such as Roland-Garros offers players exceptional exposure, generating indirect revenue through sponsorship, partnerships, and exhibition matches or appearance fees.
This year, the French Tennis Federation has also decided to direct a significant share of these increases towards players who exit in the early rounds of the main draw and qualifying rounds, with increases of over 11%, in order to better support those who rely most on tournament prize money to fund their season.
The FFT remains committed to the Roland-Garros model, which is based on a specific economic framework. The FFT is a non-profit organisation, and all revenue generated by the tournament is reinvested in Roland-Garros, as well as in the development of tennis in France and abroad:
This includes direct support for the development of tennis at club level, training programmes and performance pathways, a strong commitment to gender equality, inclusion and para tennis, as well as significant contributions to the development of international tennis via the ITF.
The FFT has also recently invested more than âŹ450M in Roland-Garros infrastructure, in particular to improve player facilities and on-site services, and will continue to invest in the future to maintain the tournamentâs standards.
so basically, it seems like refusing to engage with the partnered and paid media outlets will actually have an impact and cause some upset. but in that case, i query the decision to frame this protest as a walk-out because i'm uncertain how it will actually look - and it seems journalists aren't sure yet either.
in terms of how they're feeling about this.. well rothenberg actually thinks they can do more, and should, if they want to really get their point across. i can understand this, i think a lot of people want to see how much the players are actually willing to give up for this cause, not in the least because its the most successful and comfortable top 10s who are doing it, and i'm interested to see how a protest which could be seen as half-assed (for lack of a better word lol) would be received.
But if the players do act in a way that leaves the rightsholders who pay millions for access to tennis stars dissatisfied and feeling shortchanged, there could be blowback onto the tournament.
In the meantime, I think the players could threaten to do a lot more. Donât do on-court interviews. Donât show up to any press conferences, period, and eat the five-digit fines to show youâre serious. If they want the âboycottâ talk they floated a few weeks ago to resonate, they have to show a willingness to make tough choices. (Source: Bounces, Ben Rothenberg)
rothenberg also ends by sharing quotes by another journo, courtney nguyen, where she says quite strongly that she thinks the players shouldn't post/reshare any tournament content or media throughout to emphasise that the entertainment is not possible without them, to leverage what it is exactly that they alone bring and deserve higher pay for.
more to the point of the relationship between journalists and players, she says this:
What I hope the players understand â and Iâm not always convinced they do â is that there is a meaningful difference between the independent press corp and the paid media outlets â whether paid b/c they pay for access (rights holders) or the tournament pays for content (tournament media (website, social, video, influencers). Independent media â almost entirely written press and photographers â are not paid by the tournament to provide coverage or content. Nor do they pay the tournament a dime for access. If your protest means limiting your time with independent press, I think thatâs clown behavior. Because THAT does not hurt the FFTâs bottom line. All youâre doing is punching down at people who have zero control or influence over your paycheck.
(Source: Forty Deuce, Courtney Nguyen)
i would agree probably that many players don't think of the difference between these groups, but perhaps this protest will draw a line if they really do sit down for their 6-10 minute press conferences before avoiding the rest of their media obligations. the way courtney frames a possible boycott which does include the 'independent media' as "punching down" is fascinating. i think if the players did choose to do that, it would come at a cost to these freelancers as you say, and we would likely see a lot more blowback and input from journalists... but that doesn't seem to be the plan, at least for now.
we'll just have to see how it plays out - rothenberg also said there is going to be a meeting between the tournament and player reps on friday so this situation will only develop further
RE: the boycott, from the recent reporting today, it sounds like the meeting with the French Tennis Federation went well, and they're calling off further protests under agreement that the FFT will submit a counter-proposal within two weeks of the French Open final. The player reps be meeting with Wimbledon reps within a couple weeks as well.
That being said, there's always the possibility that this a delaying tactic by the FFT and the counter-proposal will be a farce. But I think the danger in that is that the players' next move with Wimbledon will be more extreme and it could damage relationship between the two Slams.
thank u for the update anon! good to hear its seemingly been effective enough to force negotiations, but you're right i suppose we will just have to wait for their new proposal following rg.
source: the guardian
the fact that those involved appear quite optimistic about the talks which were so quickly triggered by even this initial protest mean its likely direct action will probably be taken again at subsequent slams, i feel. the slams are such separate entities even from one another, so its interesting what you say about the tensions players could cause between rg and wimbledon too... lets see!
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lowkey driving me crazy seeing ppl on twitter treating the 15-minute thing as a noncommittal boycott - the point is not cutting short the press conferences, but everything they are skipping afterwards by not engaging with any of the rightsholders/content creators who pay the tournament millions of dollars in order to have access to them, disallowing the fft to actually deliver on those contracts. tbh though, i can't rlly blame people for responding that way because i don't think the players have made it very clear, and the whole 'symbolic' framing of the action draws attention to the 15 minutes in a way which makes it seem more theatrically performative than i believe the actual strategy is. not sure why they did that
