MELBOURNE, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Governing body Tennis Australia (TA) has defended the amount of prize money on offer at the Australian Open as twice Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff warned that players would raise the pressure if their demands were not met.
The Australian Open hiked prize money to A$111.5 million ($74.56 million) for the current tournament, bringing it ahead of last year'sFrench Open ($65.42 million) and Wimbledon ($71.60 million) but short of the U.S. Open's purse ($90 million).
The world's top players wrote to the Grand Slams calling for significant improvements in prize money in April last year, and a number have expressed dissatisfaction with the situation at Melbourne Park in recent days.
Tournament director Craig Tiley, however, said no players had approached him with any complaints about the Australian Open.
"I've also spoken to the players directly, not through third agents, and they are very happy with the Australian Open," Tiley told the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
"Not one of them has shown any dissatisfaction to me about what we are doing. And I’m not really concerned with what’s said because I know the facts.
"As I said from the beginning, I believe the players should continue to be paid more and more players paid more, we have 128 in the main draw and 128 qualifying (men and women), so we are supporting over 500 players financially each Grand Slam."
The AFR reported that agents of the world's top 10 men's and women's players had met in Melbourne over the weekend and agreed to take further action seeking a bigger share of the Australian Open revenue.
American world number three Gauff told reporters on Monday she had not heard concrete plans for action over pay but saidplayers would raise the pressure if their demands went unmet.
"I feel like that will have to be a collective decision that we would all have to talk about," she said after her 6-2 6-3 win in the first round over Kamilla Rakhimova.
"I do know players are going to put more pressure on the Slams if certain things aren't being met to where we see it."
($1 = 1.4954 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
