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As a player who hung up his rackets in April and now spends his time running tournaments instead of competing in them, Jamie Murray is well placed to comment on the tennis civil war that will rumble on into Wimbledon.
Top players believe they are underpaid, and are demanding a greater share of the Grand Slams’ revenue, launching a protest at the start of the French Open.
All eyes will be on the All England Club on Thursday when the prize-money for this year’s Championships is revealed.
Murray, 40, is a seven-time Grand Slam doubles champion and, since 2024, the tournament director of the men’s HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club, so he can see both sides of the argument.
‘I’m always going to be a player at heart,’ he told Daily Mail Sport, ‘and most of the time I’m going to fall down on the players’ side. But prize-money at the Slams is… I don’t know if it’s a bee in my bonnet but for eight weeks’ work — it’s not even that for many because they lose in the first round — for four days’ work they’re earning pretty much half their prize-money for the year — that’s a lot!’
Last year, Wimbledon paid out £3million each for the men’s and women’s champions and £66,000 for first-round losers. In total, a player who lost in the first round of all four Grand Slams would have earned £285,500.
Tennis’ civil war – featuring Aryna Sabalenka (pictured) – is rumbling into Wimbledon
Former player Jamie Murray (left) has given his view on the debate surrounding pay
‘For a long time the players were underpaid by the Slams and the tours,’ added Murray. ‘But in the 20 years I’ve been on tour it’s night and day what they earn today. It’s hard to put a number on what their value is to the tournament.
‘What I would also say is, since I started playing in 2006, the amount of investment that has gone into these tournaments — it’s such a better experience now for the players.’
At the French Open several players, including world No 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, restricted their pre-tournament press conferences to 15 minutes, in protest at the 15 per cent of revenue given in prize-money. Wimbledon’s prize-money last year worked out as 13 per cent of total revenue but after talks in Paris the All England Club are confident there will be no repeat of the player protests.
‘The French Open were getting a lot of grief because they didn’t increase their prize-money in line with revenue,’ said Murray. The players claim that French Open revenue increased by 14 per cent, while player prize-money only went up 5.4 per cent.
The top players are demanding the Slams increase prize-money to match the 22 per cent of revenue which is awarded by the regular-tour events. The major difference is those events are run as businesses, for profit, while the Grand Slams finance grass-roots tennis. Wimbledon give 90 per cent of their profit to the LTA, who run the sport in Britain. Last year that split worked out as £48.1m to the LTA and £53.5m in prize-money.
