PARIS — The prize money for the French Open has increased by about 10% for an overall pot of 61.7 million euros ($72.1 million), organizers said Thursday.
Play begins May 24 at Roland Garros in western Paris.
Men’s and women’s singles champions each receive 2.8 million euros ($3.25 million), while the runners-up will get 1.4 million euros ($1.6 million). Semifinalists earn 750,000 euros ($875,000) and first round losers get 87,000 euros ($100,000).
Men’s and women’s doubles winners pocket 600,000 euros ($700,000) and the mixed doubles champions get 122,000 euros ($140,000).
Last year, Carlos Alcaraz staged an epic comeback to beat Jannik Sinner in a five-set final and Coco Gauff defeated Aryna Sabalenka for the women’s title.
Also for the first time, players can wear data-collecting portable devices on court in order to gain information on their physical performances, tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said Thursday.
Mauresmo repeated the importance of privacy for players — an issue raised by Iga Swiatek and Gauff at this year’s Australian Open, where Gauff’s racket-smashing away from the court went viral.
Swiatek said the seemingly limitless access-all-areas cameras that track players made them feel they were being watched like “animals in the zoo.”
Without mentioning the Australian Open itself, Mauresmo said tennis should “maintain respect for privacy” and have a secluded space.
“Players need a private area, something which will not change,” she said. “No cam access (there).”
The French Open is also unflinching on the electronic line-calling adopted by Wimbledon and most big tennis tournaments; instead remaining committed to human line judges.
“They are not 100% reliable,” Mauresmo said, “but our decision was to stick to our way.”
However, Mauresmo was open to women playing five-set matches like their male counterparts.
“You can’t change a format overnight to go from best of three to best of five. But if we think about it, would it be only the semifinal, the final, or for all matches?” the former Wimbledon champion asked. “This could be a win-win situation but we have to talk about this with the women players.”
Mauresmo was also asked about scheduling for evening matches after a lack of women’s matches during the night sessions last year.
“We will talk about scheduling when the time comes,” she said without going into details. “Nothing is closed and nothing is set in stone, it depends on the draws and the lineups.”
