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)

TRACY, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters responding to a blaze that destroyed a massive medical equipment warehouse in Northern California and sent embers flying for miles were hindered by sprinklers and hydrants that weren't working, authorities said Friday.

The 1 million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter) warehouse in Tracy, a city about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) east of San Francisco, supplied medical equipment to area hospitals. It's owned by Medline, a major medical-surgical products provider of equipment such as latex gloves, masks, surgical instruments and other medical supplies.

Thick black smoke billowed Friday from the site, as firefighters continued to put out hot spots.

Authorities said they don’t yet know why the water system failed during the blaze but it appeared to be a problem with the facility’s system, not city supply.

Local fire codes generally require large warehouses to have hydrants and sprinklers and ensure both are functioning, said Brian O'Connor, a licensed fire protection engineer with the National Fire Protection Association.

“If you have a large facility, it can be difficult for firefighters to stretch a hose from the closest public hydrant to the building,” he said.

Crews responding to the blaze that broke out around 1 p.m. Thursday encountered flames on the roof and noticed no water coming out of sprinklers in the building, Tracy Deputy Fire Chief Brian Bagley said. A fire official found a pump was pushing little to no water through both the sprinklers and on-site hydrants, he said.

Firefighters were forced to try to connect to city hydrants instead. The building was engulfed by fire within 40 minutes, Bagley said.

"It’s very, very challenging,” Bagley told reporters. “You can imagine it's a skyscraper laying on its side.”

The facility had been evacuated, and no one was injured. The massive warehouse was one of more than 50 distribution centers across the country for Medline, which according to its online catalog sells bandages, wheelchairs, catheters, hospital beds and many other medical supplies.

It is not clear what exactly was stored at the Tracy facility but the company said in a statement that the warehouse was mainly serving Northern California hospitals and that following the fire, it activated a contingency plan.

“Product distribution previously supported by the Tracy facility has been reassigned and it is in the process of being deployed to other facilities within our regional network to help maintain service and support customer needs,” Medline said.

Bagley said crews on Friday were trying to give drivers access to the property to remove trailers loaded with medical equipment that were not affected by the fire.

Embers from the blaze sparked two grass fires, and set pallets and multiple big rig trailers at a nearby FedEx facility ablaze. Firefighters were able to knock those fires down.

Crews overnight had to contend with new fires in trailers that were loaded with supplies.

Bagley said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would help investigate the cause of the blaze, but authorities would probably not be able to get into the warehouse for at least a couple of more days. The sprinkler system had been tested in January by an outside company and no issues were found, Bagley said.

Fire officials were still working on Friday to gather additional information about inspections of the warehouse's water systems, said Nicole Boswell, a spokesperson for the fire department. She said local fire officials also conduct annual inspections of businesses, including their water systems, but she did not know what the fire department found during their recent inspection of the warehouse.

The warehouse is in a massive industrial park that also houses fulfillment and distribution centers for Amazon, Home Depot and FedEx.

No homes were evacuated. Bagley recommended people near the fire stay indoors but said air quality tests had not raised any “grave concerns.”

Smoke is seen from the massive fire at the Medline medical supply warehouse a million-foot facility, in Tracy, Calif., Friday, June 12, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Livermore Mayor John Marchand takes a photo of smoke from a medical supply warehouse fire in Tracy, Calif., as seen from Livermore on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Smoke is seen from the massive fire at the Medline medical supply warehouse in Tracy, Calif., Friday, June 12, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Smoke from a medical supply warehouse fire in Tracy, Calif., is seen from Livermore on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

This image from aerial video shows black smoke pouring into the sky from a fire at a medical equipment warehouse in Tracy, Calif., Thursday, June 11, 2026. (KGO via AP)