‘Spoiled’ WTA stars blasted over prize money complaints – ‘The girls are not working from 4am in the mines’
Daniela Hantuchova has criticised women’s tennis players for complaining about the gender pay gap in the sport, saying “it seems to me a bit like being spoiled”.
Major strides have been taken in recent years to decrease the pay gap that exists not just in tennis or sport, but in society in general, yet there are still big disparities even in tennis.
Although the four Grand Slams pay men and women the same, there is often a stark difference in prize money at various ATP and WTA events.
Even joint events like the Italian Open and Canadian Open pay men a lot more than women despite both tournaments being best-of-three sets.
Daniil Medvedev earned €1,105,265 for winning this year’s title in Rome while Elena Rybakina received a cheque of €521,754. Jannik Sinner won the Canadian Open and walked away with $1,019,335 while Jessica Pegula earned $454,500 for her efforts.
While tennis greats like Billie Jean King, Venus and Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova continue their fight to close the pay gap, former world No 5 Hantuchova is unimpressed by calls for more money.
In an interview with Livesport Daily podcast, tennis commentator Hantuchova said: “It seems to me a bit like being spoiled. Especially on the women’s circuit, where the prize money is what it is, and the girls are definitely not working from four in the morning somewhere in the mines.
“It’s tough, but we never allowed ourselves to criticise because we knew the cheques we were getting were because of the tournament.”
READ MORE: Michelle Obama adds her voice to those calling for pay equality in tennis
Tennis has also battled with scheduling problems in recent years with tournaments scheduled on all corners of the globe while matches often finish in the early hours of the morning.
Hantuchova, who won seven WTA singles titles and retired in 2017 at the age of 34, agrees that the sport needs to change.
“Regarding travel and the destinations in which WTA tournaments are played, on the contrary, I agree with the players,” she said.
“From this point of view, tennis is the most demanding sport that exists. For me personally, it was one of the reasons I quit.
“The body could no longer handle the time differences, I kept waking up out of the normal rhythm, it was unhealthy. I told myself that it wasn’t even worth the money, that I’d rather be well at 60. It was over the edge.”
On late matches she added: “I can see what a big tournament entails from the organisers’ point of view. They make it a point to have the most fans at the games. In Madrid, for example, nobody comes to watch tennis before 20:30 at night and before they have jamón.”