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Maria Sharapova feels the gender pay gap outside of Grand Slams is “insane” and highlighted that tennis as a sport “needs to address” that. At the Grand Slam level, ATP and WTA players are equally compensated. On the regular ATP and WTA levels, men are still being paid much more than women.
Sharapova, a former five-time Grand Slam champion, was asked about the rumors of the potential ATP-WTA merger. “That’s not going to happen, not soon. Just this week there is a men’s tournament still happening in Shanghai with the winners’ prize cheque at $1.2million.
At the same time, there is a women’s event in China and the prize cheque is $120,000. At a Grand Slam, we are celebrating equal prize money. Great. Those are the biggest events, the biggest buzz. Then the rest of the Tour, which is the eight or nine other months, the disparity is insane.
That needs to be addressed. You have so many entities. You have the ATP, the WTA, The ITF. Different ownership of tournaments. How do you align the calendar? How do you make it interesting and engaging? It will take time, but I sure hope they do it,” Sharapova said during her conversation with…
