Italian Open organizers are supporting tennis players who are urging a boycott unless the Grand Slam tournaments improve their prize money.
Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, is also campaigning to turn the Rome event into a fifth Grand Slam.
The players have targeted the French Open for reducing players' share of revenue to an alleged 14.3% -- compared to the 22% at ATP and WTA events like the Italian Open this week. Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff were among the players this week threatening a boycott of the Slams if they don't start receiving more compensation.
"The players have our full support," Binaghi said. "It's scandalous that we're required by the ATP to share a bigger cut of the revenues with the players and the four Grand Slams hand out a smaller cut.
"It's shameful and creates competitive disparities too, because the four nations [that organize the Slams] have a huge amount of money to invest in their technical sectors that other nations don't have," Binaghi added. "I want to blow apart this monopoly."
Sabalenka and fellow No. 1 Jannik Sinner were among leading players -- most of them ranked in the top 10 -- who issued a statement Monday expressing "deep disappointment" over the French Open prize money.
"Without us there wouldn't be a tournament and there wouldn't be that entertainment. I feel like definitely we deserve to be paid more percentage," Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, said Tuesday at the Italian Open, adding, "I think at some point we will boycott it. I feel like that's going to be the only way to fight for our rights."
The players are also seeking better representation, health options and pensions from the four Grand Slam tournaments.
French Open organizers did not respond to a request for comment after the players issued their statement.
The Italian Open has offered less prize money for women than men for years. The total men's prize money this year in Rome is $9.6 million and the women's prize money is $8.3 million. But next week the women's champion in Rome will earn 1.055 million euros ($1.24 million), slightly more than the 1.007 million euros handed out to the men's winner.
For more than a year, Binaghi has been campaigning to turn the Italian Open into a fifth Grand Slam alongside the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open -- a move that would upend a century of tennis history.
Besides tradition and scheduling issues, Binaghi faces another major obstacle toward making the Italian Open bigger: There's little room for expansion at the Foro Italico.
The Italian Open is hoping to pass 400,000 ticket sales this year, while the French Open last year had a total attendance of nearly 700,000.
"We're open to organizing a [fifth Grand Slam] anywhere in Italy, on any surface," Binaghi said.
Work on a retractable roof for Campo Centrale is slated to start immediately after this year's Italian Open and be ready for the 2028 edition. Capacity for the revised stadium will increase from 10,500 to 12,400.
"If we're going to aim big, we shouldn't focus exclusively on the Foro Italico, because there are a lot of issues here in terms of transport and temporary venues," Binaghi said.
The Italian Open wanted to add a mixed doubles tournament this year on the weekend before the singles events start, but ATP and WTA rules wouldn't allow it because the Madrid Open ends those days.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
