Roger Federer says Grand Slam tournaments should raise player prize money and believes the four majors will respond to a players' push for a raise.
Asked his reaction to the prize-money issue, Federer said players should be paid more, but acknowledged players are "not partners" with the four Grand Slams.
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"Yes, they could definitely pay more, no doubt about it," Federer told the media in Melbourne following his second-round victory. "But we don't need to talk about that right now in the third round or second round of a tournament.
"They know that. We're not partners. We're just players. It's always hard to rally. We had a good agreement, in my opinion, that made the Grand Slams happy, the players pretty happy. Seems like that has run its course."
Earlier this week, Novak Djokovic shot down reports he was advocating a player boycott of the Grand Slams in order to leverage more prize money at a player meeting in Melbourne.
"I know that you guys are trying to take this forward several steps," told the media in Melbourne after thrashing Donald Young in his opener. "Obviously you're talking about union, you're talking about boycott, you're talking about radical decisions to make and move so we can get financial compensations the way we deserve it.
"But there was no talks about that. Again, I'm saying it was subjects that we never get a chance to talk about in such a large group. That's all it was. Never have intentionally thrown anybody out of the room. Everything was done in a very normal, polite way. Players wanted to stay alone. There was up to a hundred players in the room. We talked about things that we talked about. That's all."
The 36-year-old Federer called the negotiation process a "never-ending story" and suggested the Grand Slams will respond to player requests because "we have good ocntacts with the slams."
"The moment that happens, there's not the same increases any more, so players have to rally, get back together again, put in the effort," Federer said. "The Grand Slams know that. They will only react when we do so. We're ready to do it. It's going to be the same process over and over again.
"It's a bit boring, to be honest, always having to ask for stuff. If you look at the revenue, the sharing process, it's not quite where it's supposed to be. But, look, you can't go from here to right there in a day. We know that. We just hope they realize and they do appreciate us maybe more all the time and not just in waves, you know what I mean?
"But it's all good. We have good contacts with the slams. It's all good. But it's going to be a never-ending story."
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