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ROME — 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 coming 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 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."
It should be noted that 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 while the women's prize money is $8.3 million.
But next week the women's champion in Rome will earn 1.055 million euros — 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 U.S. Open — upending a century of tennis history.
With Jannik Sinner dominating at No. 1 and three other Italians in the men's top 20 rankings — No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti; No. 12 Flavio Cobolli and No. 20 Luciano Darderi — Italian tennis is booming.
Italy has won the Davis Cup for three straight years and the Billie Jean King Cup — the women's team event — for the last two years.
So Binaghi, who took over the federation a quarter century ago when it was nearly bankrupt, wants to take advantage of the boom for his Grand Slam dream.
"We're experiencing a stretch of tennis in Italy that will be tough to repeat, because it also needs to be considered in comparison with the Italian soccer debacle," Binaghi said, referring to how Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup.
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.
"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.
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.
"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.
So would Binaghi be willing to move the tournament away from the Foro and its statue-lined courts?
"These days, the beauty factor is just added value; it's not decisive," he said. "The people don't come to see the statues anymore. They come to see Sinner, Musetti, (Jasmine) Paolini and the other Italian players."
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.
While Jasmine Paolini earned Italy the titles in both women's singles and doubles (with partner Sara Errani) last year, Sinner is an overwhelming favorite this year to become the first Italian man to win at the Foro since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago.
Apart from the Olympics, the Italian Open and French Open are the only big titles in tennis that Sinner hasn't won and his top rival, Carlos Alcaraz, is out of both tournaments due to a right wrist injury.
Binaghi said if Sinner raises the trophies in Rome and Paris, "maybe I should step down.
"If it happens," Binaghi said of Sinner winning those two titles, "we'll take stock of all the opportune and logical consequences."
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
