In an interview with Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly, Maria Sharapova pointed out the great disparity in prize money between men’s and women’s tennis, saying that equal pay at Grand Slams is amazing but at most tournaments there still is a dramatic difference in checks received by the WTA and ATP players.
Highlighting the problem of unequal prize money, Sharapova said:
Just this week there’s a men’s tournament in Shanghai, with the winner’s prize check $1.2 million. In the same week there’s a women’s tournament in China with the winner’s check at $120,000. I don’t know if anyone’s familiar with those numbers.
You go to a Grand Slam and we are celebrating equal prize money at the Grand Slams. Great. Those are the biggest events, with the biggest attention, media, the buzz. But then the rest of the Tour, which is the eight or nine other months, the disparity is insane and that needs to be addressed.
Although it is a fact that women’s tennis still has a long way to go when it comes to equal pay, it has to be said that Sharapova’s example is skewed, as she compared an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event (Rolex Shanghai Masters) and a lower tier WTA 500 event (Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open). For example, at this month’s WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing, champion Iga…
