Djokovic and Sabalenka join the new athletic council of Grand Slams

Protests since the first half of 2025

Since the first half of 2010, some of the circuit's stars have mobilized to put pressure on Grand Slam tournaments, this year during Roland Garros and Wimbledon they reduced their media commitments.

The number that sums up the claim: athletes expect to get 22% from revenues, compared with about 15% they currently receive.

Council announcement at the end of August

Against this backdrop, the organisers of the Grand Slams US the four major tennis tournaments:US The Open, Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon announced in late August that they would set up a players' advisory board.

In a joint communiqué published in August, the tournaments said that players joining the new institution will "examine all sporting issues of Grand Slam events".The idea is for the initiative to serve as 'a forum for direct communication, feedback and collaboration between Grand Slams and players'.

For the tennis-loving crowd, the point is this: The advisory board was born as a channel for dialogue, not an entity with unilateral power over tournaments; yet it can become a permanent space of negotiation about schedule, media obligations, sports rules and revenue sharing.

The composition starts to take shape this Monday .

The new forum for dialogue between tennis stars and Grand Slam tournaments is beginning to take shape with the presence of Aryna Sabalenka, Novak Djokovic and 10 other players, according to information published by American journalist Jon Wertheim and confirmed by AFP.

According to screenshots posted on social media Monday by journalist Jon Wertheim, six male and female players will be part of this new dialogue body.

Who's on the board?

In the women's draw, they are: world number one Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan; Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka (No.2); Americans Jessica Pegula and Iva Jovic (No.13); Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (No.7); and Greek Maria Sakkari (No.33). They will represent the interests of female players on the circuit.

In the men's event, German Alexander Zverev (No. 2), American Ben Shelton (No.4), Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime (No.5), Serbian Novak Djokovic (No.11) and Italian Lorenzo Musetti (No.25) have all volunteered to be part of the new team along with Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech (No.33).

The Great Absences

The big absentees are the world number 1, Italian Jannik Sinner, Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (No.3) and American Coco Gauff (N.4).

The presence of Djokovic, Sabalenka, Rybakina, Zverev and other well-known names gives POL ethical weight to the initiative.

What's left

The Grand Slams created the council after protests, announced increases in funding and released a dialogue structure.The list of 6 men and 6 women has already appeared in news reports and was confirmed to AFP.However, it is not yet detailed how this forum will produce concrete results: what decisions will be submitted to the board, how players' positions will be taken into account and whether there will be effective participation from absent athletes.

Meanwhile, the pressure for a bigger share of revenues 22% versus the current around 15% remains as the most visible data from trading.

The news was published by Gazeta Esportiva, with confirmation from AFP and information from Jon Wertheim.

== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man