“If you’re not ATP Top 50, you net more as a teaching pro in south Florida”: Reilly Opelka jumps into the prize-money debate
Reilly Opelka replied in the comments of a Patrick Mouratoglou post on Instagram about Grand Slam revenue distribution, in his own terms.
Reilly Opelka, Miami 2025 | © Julien Nouet / Tennis Majors
Reilly Opelka added his voice to the prize-money debate on Sunday, replying in the comments of a Patrick Mouratoglou post on Instagram about Grand Slam revenue distribution. “If you’re not top 50 you net more as a teaching pro in south Florida,” he wrote under Mouratoglou’s post, which has caused a lot of reaction in the context of the prize-money guerrilla happening behind the scenes before Roland-Garros.
The American picked up the same 14% figure that Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Aryna Sabalenka have all referenced in Rome this week — and turned it on the national federations, three of them (Australia, France, USA) organising Grand Slam tournaments.
“Tennis is the ultimate meritocracy,” Opelka continued. “We don’t need government grants, we need transparency. The fact that the USTA, LTA [Wimbledon is organised by a private club, The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, editor’s note], FFT, and TA are all ‘non profits’ should tell you everything you need to know. I’m always sceptical of organisations without direct market accountability. If the players are the product and only receive 14% of revenues, where is the money going?”
Mouratoglou : “It’s difficult to understand for the fans”
The Mouratoglou post he was replying to had laid out the same argument the players have been making all week: the four Grand Slams pay back 13-15% of revenue to players, against roughly 22% on the ATP and WTA tours.
“This year, the winner of Roland-Garros will win 2.8 million euros. The one who loses in the first round, 87,000 euros,” Mouratoglou said in the post. “It’s difficult to understand for the fans that players who make so much money want more, and I can get that. The real question is not how much money they make. The real question is, how is the money distributed? What the players complain about is the fact that the governing bodies are not giving back a high percentage of the money they make.”
Mouratoglou went further on the structural issue Opelka picked up in his comment. “The problem that I see also is that most of the money the governing bodies are giving back is going to a very, very small proportion of players. It’s not normal that in a sport like tennis, a guy who’s ranked 150 in the world cannot make a living. This is completely a scandal.”
Opelka’s track record on the subject
Opelka’s own track record gives the comment weight. The 28-year-old, now ranked No. 74 (he was No. 17 in 2022), is a co-plaintiff in the PTPA’s March 2025 lawsuit against the ATP, WTA, ITF and ITIA, which alleges “artificial caps on prize money” among other claims.
Opelka testified in a Manhattan federal court in April 2025 that ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi had sent a Players Advisory Council member to warn him, on an exercise bike at the Miami Open, that he would lose his pension and face millions in legal fees if he did not withdraw his name from the PTPA suit, as reported by Front Office Sports. Opelka said he had three conversations with the player but refused to name him, citing fear of retribution.
The ATP denied the account; the judge overruled its objection and let the testimony stand. The ATP has not publicly commented on that account since then.
Opelka attacked the ATP in 2022 for what he called the “systematic suppression of player compensation” after the Western & Southern Open was sold for a reported $300 million while prize money at many events stayed flat. He has also been fined some $94,600 in 2025, including $54,600 at Indian Wells over a lighting dispute (twice his prize money for the tournament) and $40,000 at the Dallas Open after calling the chair umpire “bush league.”
Sinner, Zverev, Sabalenka, Gauff, Djokovic and several other players have all addressed the same prize-money question in the past four days. The Wimbledon announcement is next.
