Italian Open leaders side with players on prize money issue and aim to become a 5th Grand Slam

ROME (AP) — 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.”

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

China's Qinwen Zheng reacts as she plays Hungary's Anna Bondar, at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

Italy's Jannik Sinner returns the ball to France's Arthur Fils during their men's singles semifinal match at the Madrid Open tennis tournament in Madrid, Spain, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, returns the ball to Hailey Baptiste, of the United States, during the Madrid Open tennis tournament in Madrid, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Jannik Sinner of Italy returns the ball to Rafael Jodar of Spain during the Madrid Open tennis tournament in Madrid, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Garcia)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia 's populist President Aleksandar Vucic said Saturday he will resign his post within weeks, paving the way for early elections following youth-led protests that shook his tight grip on power.

Vucic did not specify exactly when he would resign or when an election, either for Parliament or for a new president, could be held. He has said in the past that he could leave the post amid speculation that he would try to switch to the formally more powerful position of prime minister of the Balkan country.

Vucic, who is currently serving his second term, cannot run again for president, according to Serbia's election law. Both regular presidential and parliamentary elections are due next year.

“I will be president for several weeks more and then I will submit my resignation,” Vucic told thousands of his supporters in downtown Belgrade. He said he will help his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party at upcoming elections.

“We will win more convincingly than ever before,” he said, telling the crowd that this was probably the last time he addresses them as Serbia's president.

University students behind more than a year of protests against Vucic's increasingly autocratic rule in Serbia have been demanding early parliamentary elections for over a year but Vucic so far has refrained from setting the date.

Vucic has gradually tightened his grip on power since his populist party took over the Serbian government 14 years ago. A train station accident in the country's north in November 2024 triggered monthslong mass protests demanding accountability for the tragedy that killed 16 people.

Vucic has pushed back hard against the protesters, and has also faced European Union criticism over Serbia's democratic backsliding, including a media clampdown. Hundreds of people have been detained and Serbia's police was accused of excessive force and arbitrary arrests.

Anti-government protesters have blamed the fall of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on alleged corruption-fueled negligence in big state infrastructure projects.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic waves a Serbian flag during a rally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 27, 2026, where he announced that he will resign in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Supporters of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attend a rally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic addresses a rally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic addresses a rally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, June 27, 2026, where he announced that he will resign in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)