TENNIS: Tennis Australia defends prize money amid player complaints

MELBOURNE, Jan. 19 (Reuters) — Tennis Australia (TA), the governing body of the Australian Open, defended its prize money payout as two-time Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff warned that players would intensify pressure if their demands were not met.

The Australian Open increased prize money to A$111.5 million ($74.56 million) for the current tournament. This amount surpasses last year’s French Open ($65.42 million) and Wimbledon ($71.60 million), but still falls short of the U.S. Open’s $90 million purse.

In April last year, the world’s top players wrote to the Grand Slams demanding significant improvements in prize money. Several players have also expressed dissatisfaction with the current situation at Melbourne Park in recent days.

However, Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said no player had personally approached him with complaints about the prize money.

“I’ve also spoken to the players directly, not through third agents, and they are very happy with the Australian Open,” Tiley told the Australian Financial Review (AFR). “Not one of them has shown any dissatisfaction to me about what we are doing. And I’m not really concerned with what’s said because I know the facts.”

Tiley added, “As I said from the beginning, I believe the players should continue to be paid more and more players paid more. We have 128 in the main draw and 128 qualifying (men and women), so we are supporting over 500 players financially each Grand Slam.”

The AFR reported that agents of the world’s top 10 men’s and women’s players met in Melbourne over the weekend and agreed to take further action to seek a larger share of Australian Open revenue.

American world No. 3 Gauff said she had not heard any concrete plans for action over pay, but warned that players would increase pressure if their demands were not met.

“I feel like that will have to be a collective decision that we would all have to talk about,” Gauff said after her 6-2, 6-3 win in the first round against Kamilla Rakhimova. “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.”

($1 = 1.4954 Australian dollars)

-Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford/Reuters