Coco Gauff has explained why she joined a group of top-10 players who signed a second letter to the four Grand Slam tournaments, asking for a larger share of their revenues and contribution to player benefits.
An initial letter, which Gauff also signed, was sent to the Majors in March, and a series of players renewed their calls for more prize money and other areas of reform from the sport’s four biggest and most prestigious tournaments.
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According to The Athletic, Gauff and co. asked for the Grand Slam tournaments to contribute to welfare and benefit funds for pensions, healthcare and maternity; for better player representation with the formation of a Grand Slam Player Council; and for an increase in prize money proportionate to revenue.
The four Majors have already responded to the letter in question, which was dated July 30, but recently came to light. And Gauff has now explained why it was important for her to sign both memos.
“I think for me personally, I think for the long run of our sport, the whole ecosystem, I think it’s really important,” she said after reaching the China Open semi-finals on Thursday.
“As we know in this sport, the Grand Slams are generating the most revenue, at least the stats and the percentages they gave me, when you look at the percentage of that revenue going to prize money, it is not the same as the WTA and ATP, even though they’re generating less revenue than the Slams.
Coco Gauff is into the China Open semi-finals (Image: Getty)
“I think it’s important for the whole ecosystem of the sport. Sometimes people are focused on just the prize money. We’re not talking about just raising the prize money for the champion, but trickling all the way down to qualies.
“We kind of want them to invest more in the tour as a whole, not only when it comes to prize money, but the well-being of players and just trickling that down, all the way down to the lower-ranked players as well. Our 200th best player, 300th best player are struggling to make ends meet. In other leagues, it’s not that common, especially with the revenue that tennis is generating.”