“Tennis is broken. Behind the glamorous veneer that the defendants promote, players are trapped in an unfair system that exploits their talent,” Ahmad Nassar, PTPA’s director, declared two months back after Novak Djokovic-led Professional Tennis Players Association launched a lawsuit against the ATP, WTA, ITIA, and ITF. Reason? Alleged anti-competitive practices and pay disparity. And to add to the growing challenges of the governing bodies, prominent tennis icons like Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, and Carlos Alcaraz came together, last month, to sign a joint letter to the Grand Slams, as reported by French publication L’ÉQUIPE. They want a big boost in the prize money across the four majors. While this issue remains unresolved, there’s a significant update from ATP. Guess what? The agency just made a huge announcement on player compensation in the 2025 season. How much, though?

“There are not enough players who can live out of tennis. That’s the first thing. And it’s something that I’ve said many times in the past,” Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou said last month in a clip on his IG account. He threw light on the struggles of less popular players who hardly earn a big chunk from their participation in events. Undoubtedly, his reaction came following the 163-page PTPA lawsuit document. Now it appears the ATP’s team has opted to do something for lower-ranked pros and others competing across tours.

On ATP’s official IG account, its chairman Andrea Gaudenzi revealed crucial news on player compensation for the current season. “It’s a total of around, in 2025, $260 million of player compensation coming from the tour.” So there you have it. That’s the figure. But wait, is this a significant increase? Per ATP, it appears to be the case. Turns out it’s up “$100 million from 2019 levels”, read the post from the agency on May 16.

Compared to last year, the amount is 7.61 percent higher. When the ATP revealed its compensation figure in October 2024, it was $241.6 million. This amount was “distributed to players across the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour through On-Site Prize Money, Performance Bonus Pools, and Player Retirement Plan contributions,” reported ATP’s website.

In an extended YouTube video, Gaudenzi also talked about the process of how prize money levels get decided on the tour? Per him, “The prize money level in our tournaments get decided by the board. And just to be clear, those are the minimum levels. So we define the minimum levels but the tournaments are absolutely free to increase those levels and to go as high they wish.”

So what’s the actual role of the board in this case? Gaudenzi answered, “to define the distribution. So a tournament could increase prize money, but it’s still a decision of the board how that money gets distributed.”

While the latest update may seem like a ray of hope, the situation regarding Grand Slams still remains in hot waters. In fact, a former WTA icon believes the main problem is that organizers of the majors are not paying a huge sum to players.

Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rennae Stubbs highlights the ‘Grand Slam’ problem following PTPA’s lawsuit

When it comes to ex-Aussie legend Rennae Stubbs, it seems the underlying issue is related to the majors. But how? In an episode of her podcast, dated March 25, Stubbs revealed, “If you think about it, I’m going to talk about it in layman’s terms here. Basically, the winner of a Grand Slam is getting somewhere between $3 million and $4 million.” Now according to her it’s not a big amount. It may look attractive initially “until you learn what the tournament is earning.”

She admitted that $4 million sounds great “but when you’re talking about the best players in the world playing seven matches, seven matches over more than two weeks now, every Grand Slam is going to 15 days. It’s like, if you think about a Novak Djokovic, let’s say back in the day, Roger Federer, Serena, the all-time greats. If they played seven nights of exhibitions, they would be making at least $7 million.” To add weight to her stance, there are some crucial numbers available as well.

Take, for example, last year’s US Open event. It made over $500 million in revenue, including ticket sales, sponsorships, and broadcasting. These details were shared by Tennis Insider Club in September 2024. The prize pool for players was escalated to $75 million in this edition, with men’s and women’s singles champions taking $3.6 million. But guess what? The amount was just 15 percent of the overall revenue figure.

Stubbs concluded, “So my whole thing is, when you think about that for a two-week event, the time that they’re giving out, the money that those Grand Slams are making, that is not enough money for them.” What are your thoughts on the pay disparity in tennis? Also, what’s your take on ATP’s latest boost for player compensation? Let us know in the comments below.