Aryna Sabalenka began her French Open campaign wearing over $110,000 (£85,000) of jewellery days after leading the charge of players demanding more prize money.
Sabalenka set a women’s tennis record last year by earning $15m, and has been one of the key figures demanding players receive a higher percentage of the revenue generated by the four grand slams.
The 28-year-old took to court for her first-round match at Roland Garros wearing jewellery worth more than opponent Jessica Bouzas Maneiro earned in prize money for the 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
Sabalenka has a partnership with New York designer Material Good and Telegraph Sport understands they have provided three necklaces worth a total of $148,000 for the tournament. Sabalenka elected not to wear the third necklace as part of that collection on court on Tuesday. The three necklaces include over 200 carats of garnets and 23 carats of diamonds.
On Friday, the top 10 men’s and women’s players enforced a symbolic 15-minute limit to their media duties on the allocated day for press before the tournament. It represented a nod to the fact the French Tennis Federation’s prize fund is less than 15 per cent of the revenue for the tournament. Sabalenka drew her English-language press conference to a close early after answering 13 questions. The campaign is spearheaded by WTA chairman and chief executive Larry Scott.
On the practicalities of wearing heavy necklaces on a court with temperatures above 30 degrees, Sabalenka said: “I don’t really feel the heaviness of it, but I can imagine how it looks from the outside. Actually, it’s supposed to be the third necklace, but, I was, like, ‘Okay, it’s kind of like too much probably’, so I decided to keep it just two.
“I feel pretty comfortable. For me, it’s important to look good. If I feel good looking-wise, I perform better and I feel great.”
When it was put to her that the decision to wear jewellery worth more than the amount first-round losers receive as prize money, Sabalenka said: “I don’t really see how it can be possible to, like, cross these two completely different worlds. As I said before, prize money, it’s not about me at all. It’s just fighting for players, lower-ranked players who is really struggling to survive in this tennis world.”
While wearing those two necklaces Sabalenka said in her media press conference on Friday that it was not about her but the “players who are lower in the ranking, who suffer. It is not easy to live in this tennis world with that percentage that we are earning”.
Tennis players lower down the ladder struggle financially. Britain’s Francesca Jones said on Friday players outside the top 75 struggle to break even in a financial structure that heavily benefits those at the top.
The players are asking for 22 per cent of tournament income, which would equate to an extra £25m, and Telegraph Sport understands the French Tennis Federation has met with player representatives and plan to put forward a counter offer to proposals in the coming weeks.
There are no official limits to what players can wear when it comes to jewellery at Grand Slam events, other than having to present themselves “in a professional manner”.
There is also no reason why Sabalenka could not sport something similar, or even the same necklace and earring arrangement at Wimbledon, with nothing in the rulebook limiting what jewellery players can wear.