Talking Points: Top Star Comments From Roland Garros Media Day
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, May 22, 2026
Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty
Stars were shining—and speaking—at Roland Garros media day today.
The clock was ticking, too.
Not the on-court shot clock, but a self-imposed modified media day boycott several players joined to protest what they say is insufficient revenue sharing from the four Grand Slams.
Tennis Now lead writer Chris Oddo is in Paris filing daily reports for both Tennis Now and the official Roland Garros website. Read Chris Oddo’s report on the modified media day boycott here.
Words become even more precious when some stars limited media obligations to 15 minutes today as part of the modified boycott, while others (See below) said “we all have our own interests.”
Here are some of the intriguing player comments that caught our ears from today’s Roland Garros media day.
“I think all of us are here just for one reason, you know. Doesn’t matter if I didn’t play a lot of matches on the clay court. I know that, I know how to play on clay, and it’s all about being physically and mentally healthy, to go for it, and to be ready to fight. All I can say that I’m ready to fight, and of course I hope to do a little bit better than I did last year,” World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who lost to Coco Gauff in the 2025 final.
“I hear talking only about prize money, but we talk also about the pension, which is a very important topic, because after tennis player also hopefully we get some pension money, and also the decision-making. Because who decides if they start now three Grand Slam out of four, we start Sunday, but we don’t know if they want to start Saturday or Friday. So we would like to have also a small conversation into that. So let’s see where we go. Let’s see also how other Grand Slams are going to react after here, and then we’re gonna decide,” world No. 1 Jannik Sinner on the players primary issues with the four Grand Slam tournaments.
“[Sinner is] maybe in the form of his life, and without Carlos being here also increases his chances even more of claiming more Grand Slam titles. So we are all here to try to, you know, try to win against him and prevent him from taking more titles. We have witnessed yesterday night on the court that he has lost only for the third time this year against, you know, Monfils and Svitolina in exhibition (laughter). I told him that on the court that if he doesn’t step up, that he’s going to lose against Gael,” Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic on derailing world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s quest to win Roland Garros and complete the career Grand Slam at age 24.
“Now with Carlos not playing, you’re kind of looking like the inevitable is going to happen. Obviously the thing about this sport is anything can happen, anything is possible. You never know what’s going to happen in a match or what’s going to unfold and if he’s going to stay healthy the entire tournament now going to three out of five. There is a lot of other factors,” Jessica Pegula on inevitability of Sinner winning Roland Garros.
“I think that the biggest piece from me is what my identity is on the clay, how I want to play, and from surface to surface that can vary a lot, which makes it difficult, because something that works in Munich may not work in Rome, or something that works really well at Roland Garros may not work in Hamburg. I think that that’s the beauty of clay and also the difficulty. Each week you have to be able to adapt and sometimes play a completely different game style based on the conditions. I think that’s maybe not a technical piece, but it’s one of the most important pieces,” Ben Shelton on adapting his attacking game to Roland Garros’ red clay.
“Everything is possible. I can win [the title]. I can be defeated during the first match. I don’t know. We’ll see what’s going to happen. We’ll see,” Frenchwoman Lois Boisson a year after her Cinderella wild card run to the Roland Garros semifinals.
“Well, we have a right to withdraw any time we want, so I don’t see the problem, honestly. If we are not fit or we don’t feel like this is the right time for us to play a tournament, like, are we slaves? Like, we are allowed to decide. I don’t see the problem. We get zero in the ranking. That’s a punishment,” Iga Swiatek responding to Dubai Tournament Director recommending harsher penalties for Aryna Sabalenka and Swiatek for Dubai withdrawals.
“They [Grand Slams] don’t hear you. They don’t answer. Basically, I don’t know, just give you example. When you send the mail in, no one responds to official mail for months… and we are doing the same thing. Come on, guys. We are together, or you completely don’t care that much that you cannot even communicate,” Andrey Rublev on Grand Slam ignoring players’ request for a greater share of major revenue.
“I’m not part of any movement. It is an individual sport. If there was actually a movement, we would have known of it earlier. We all have our own interests, and my interest at the moment is to play better than I’m doing at the moment. Sports has to been put before everything else,” Frenchman Corentin Moutet on whether he was participating in a planned player modified media boycott.
“I was finishing the college season with UVA, and I think I was playing maybe some challengers in the U.S. before coming back to Europe to play the challengers in summer here. I think that was the situation,” Spanish breakout star Rafael Jodar on what he was doing during the 2025 Roland Garros.
“I think that it’s just because I love to play, and when I play doubles, I’m not as stressed and not as nervous, and I really focus on how to have fun. When I play doubles, it reminds me of when me and my sister, we played Ping-Pong, and it’s just all about laughs and all about having fun, and we’re super competitive, as well,” Mirra Andreeva on why she’s entered both singles and doubles draws at Roland Garros.
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