Shocking prize money gap for men and women players in Cincinnati revealed
Tennis prides itself on the tradition of paying equal prize money for men and women players in the four Grand Slam tournaments, but the huge gap in prize money at this week’s joint tournament in Cincinnati confirms equal pay is still a distant dream in the sport.
Back in 1973, the US Open became the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments to offer equal prize money to men and women competitors.
Plenty raised their eyebrows in surprise at the time as, in essence, women were earning more money than their male counterparts as they only played matches over the best of three sets compared to best-of-five for the men.
Tennis icon Billie Jean King led the campaign for equal prize money at the US Open as a year earlier, she received just $10,000 for his win at the US Open compared to the $25,000 collected by Ilie Nastase.
Eleven years after the US Open equal pay decision, the Australian Open began offering equal prize money but reverted to paying the men more in 1996, citing higher ratings for men’s matches.
That decision was reversed in 2001 and they have paid the male and female winners the same amount ever since.
Then in 2007, the French Open and Wimbledon paid equal prize money to the men’s and women’s champions, with all four Grand Slam sticking by that policy since then.
Yet regular tour events are still lagging behind when it comes to equal pay and there are numerous reasons why that is the case.
It’s not down to sexism or bias against women’s tennis, but merely a reality that the WTA Tour have less lucrative broadcast and sponsorship deals than the ATP Tour.
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That ensures male players are paid more, but the scale of the payment gap is highlighted on weeks like this.
Both the ATP and WTA are staging their marquee pre-US Open event at the same Cincinnati venue this week, but the men’s champion will receive almost double the payment of their female counterpart.
The men’s champion in Cincinnati will collect $1,049,460 in prize money, with the runner-up getting $573,090.
The women’s champion will get less than the runner-up in the ATP draw, with $573,090 going to the champion.
Defeated semi-finals in the men’s tournament at Cincinnati will receive more in prize money than the runner-up in the WTA Tour event, but this may merely be a story of commercial reality.
That was the verdict of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, when he gave his thoughts on the equal pay debate earlier this year.
“I don’t want to be hypocritical and say things that are easy to say and that I don’t feel. What do you want me to say? For me, the investment for women should be the same as for men,” said the 22-time major champion.
“The opportunities, the same. The salaries, the same? No, for what? It’s not unfair, what’s unfair is that there isn’t equal opportunity.
“I have a mother and a sister. If you tell me that men and women deserve the same opportunities, I’m a feminist. This term is taken to the extreme. If we’re talking about logical and normal things in this conversation, of course I want equality.
“For me, equality isn’t about giving away gifts, but if Serena Williams earns more than me, I want her to earn more than me. I want equality, I want women to earn more than men if they generate more than men.
“What bothers me is when people tell me that income and earnings should be equal. In tennis, for some reason, the payouts are almost equal in most events because at the time there was an opportunity for women’s tennis to be seen.
“Women’s tennis is very popular around the world. I don’t want to get into a fight about this, the problem for me is the discussion.”