Grand Slam player advisory council to be created
Leading ATP and WTA players welcome the US Open’s 20% prize money increase, new player welfare commitment and the creation of a Grand Slam Player Advisory Council.
Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner, 2025 | © Zuma / PsNewz
Tennis’s four Grand Slams have agreed to establish a Player Advisory Council, “leading ATP and WTA players” announced on Thursday in a media release sent by their representatives, hailing the move as “a significant milestone” and a direct response to their demands.
The group said the Council reflected “real responsiveness on one of the requests players laid out to the Grand Slams eighteen months ago.” It would give players, for the first time, a formal and standing channel into the decisions taken by the sport’s four biggest events.
“Regular, structured dialogue of this kind is exactly what players have been asking for, and it can only strengthen the relationship between players and the Grand Slams over time,” the statement said, in a rare happy way. The players described the announcement as “a meaningful step forward in giving players a more direct and consistent voice in decisions that affect them.”
The composition and operation of the Council – including who will represent the players – are still to be determined. Players and their representatives will now discuss those details, the statement said, adding that they wanted to ensure the Council “develops into a genuinely representative and effective forum for player consultation.”
The creation of the Council is the most concrete outcome to date of talks between players and the Grand Slams that have run from Roland-Garros 2025.
The nature of the new body remains to be clarified. It is neither a union, like the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), nor an organ of a tour’s governance, as the ATP and WTA player councils are. The four majors do coordinate through Grand Slam Tennis, a board bringing together the four Grand Slam chairs and their CEOs alongside the ITF, but that body largely oversees sporting and regulatory matters, such as the Grand Slam rule book and code of conduct, while each tournament remains independently run and sets its own commercial terms, including prize money.
Prize money distribution
At this stage, then, the Player Advisory Council looks less like a formal institution than a de facto forum, whose authority will depend on how each of the majors chooses to act on what it recommends.
At the heart of those talks is the prize money distribution. Players are seeking to have 22% of total Grand Slam revenues allocated to prize money by 2030, reached through a gradual increase; prize money is currently estimated to represent between 13% and 15% of Grand Slam revenues. They are also pushing for a welfare contribution rising to 12 million dollars per Grand Slam by the same 2030 target.
In that context, the players on Thursday also welcomed the US Open’s announcement of a 20% increase in prize money and a new financial commitment to player welfare. They called the rise “substantial,” while noting it was “not yet tied to an agreed revenue-sharing formula,” and said they “remain committed to that principle.” Players added that they valued the welfare commitment and were “keen to discuss how it can grow.”
The US Open, the season’s final Grand Slam, is being held in New York from August 29.
