The women’s professional tennis tour took another step towards closing the gender pay gap on Tuesday as players and tournament officials committed to aligning their prize money with the men’s for key tournaments, although the shift will not be complete for another 10 years .
The move came after months of negotiations within the WTA Tour, which also involve tournament organizers, as well as years of player complaints and dragging by tournament officials who for decades have paid female professionals a fraction of what they pay the men, even in tournaments. where they play the same best-of-three-sets format.
In May in Rome, the men competed for $8.5 million, while the women competed for $3.9 million. The Western & Southern Open, the main tune-up for the US Open, paid men $6.28 million, while women competed for $2.53 million. The National Bank Open in Canada last year offered the men $5.9 million, compared to $2.53 million for the women.
“More and more players are getting restless because of this,” said Jessica Pegula, the fourth-ranked player in the world and a member of the WTA Players’ Council. “Equal pay started with the Slams, and I think a lot of people thought that meant every tournament.”
Women and men have received equal prize money at all Grand Slam tournaments since 2007. and the 500-level tournaments — have committed to pay equity as well.
All events featuring both men and women at those two tiers will pay prize money equal to that of the men’s tour, the ATP, which begins in 2027. By 2033, all events on those two tiers will offer the same prize money.
Tour executives and tournament officials say the phased approach is essential to generate the additional revenue to fund the wage increases, but it hasn’t been well received by all players.
“I don’t know why it’s not level now,” Paula Badosa of Spain, who is ranked second in the world, said last month.
Sloane Stephens, another Players’ Council member, said she understands the impatience of players who don’t want this benefit to kick in after they retire, but there are many existing contracts preventing an immediate shift.
“It may not be the fastest way, but we’ll get there,” she said. “If I wasn’t on the council, it would be hard for me to understand. This process takes time.”
In an interview this spring, Steven Simon, the CEO of the WTA Tour, said the time frame is needed to allow the market to catch up with player sentiment as the tour expands its marketing and renegotiates existing media contracts. Tournament organizers will also be able to take advantage of new rules that essentially mandate player attendance at the biggest tournaments.
Tournament organizers have long used the lack of a mandatory attendance requirement and a small difference in the number of ranking points players received as excuses for not providing equal pay. All men’s and women’s tournaments will also now offer the same ranking points for both, making the competitions even in all respects and less confusing for fans.
But while the pay equity deal offers a final solution to an old problem for tennis – and in all sports – it is hardly a panacea. With Wimbledon kicking off on Monday, women’s tennis continues to grapple with challenges.
The tour is yet to announce the location of the season-ending tour finale in November. That matter was said to have been resolved after the tour announced earlier this year that it would end an 18-month suspension of operations in China over the country’s treatment of former player Peng Shuai. In a 2021 social media post, Shuai accused a government official of sexually assaulting her, and travel officials were subsequently unable to contact her.
Simon said the boycott proved to be ineffective. But when the tour released its fall calendar earlier this month, it did not provide a venue for the finals, although it included several tournaments in China. Tour officials have said they plan to hold the event there, but negotiations with the Chinese continue over the details of the existing 10-year deal that guaranteed nearly $150 million in prize money.
There’s also the bigger question of whether the WTA Tour will be able to further unite with the men’s tour, a move experts say is essential to maximizing the potential of pro tennis. And what stands above it all is what, if any, role Saudi Arabia can play in the sport.
Saudi Arabia, whose LIV Golf circuit recently agreed to merge with the golf PGA Tour, is already hosting a lucrative men’s scholarship event, but so far it has shown a tendency to grow its investments in tennis without the acrimony and lawsuits that are accompanied his aggressive push into golf.
According to those with knowledge of the bidding process, Saudi Arabia is one of the leading candidates to host the ATP’s Next Gen Finals, a season-ending tournament for 21-year-olds and under that has been held in Milan since its inception in 2017. The proposal to hold the contest, which begins later this year, includes a plan to launch a similar women’s event.
The WTA has yet to commit to doing so or organize competitions in Saudi Arabia, where women were only recently given the right to drive and where the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi has a disastrous record. Simon traveled to the kingdom earlier this year for talks with government officials, although it is not clear whether the WTA’s idea of further unification with the ATP includes a new tournament in Saudi Arabia.
For now, closing the pay gap is the first step, although some players don’t understand the slow pace of change.
“I don’t see why we should wait,” Ons Jabeur from Tunisia, who is in sixth place, recently said.
In response, Simon has pointed to the deal the tour struck earlier this year with CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm, which bought 20 percent of a WTA commercial subsidiary for $150 million. Much of the investment will be used to improve sales and marketing efforts at a time when many of its players remain unknown to casual sports fans.
Doing that may require some work on the part of the tournaments beyond giving women more money.
“We need to build these personalities,” Simon said.
Tennis women have also become increasingly vocal in recent months about the disparate treatment they have received. At the French Open, the organizers placed a men’s match in the primetime slot shown on nine nights out of ten.
The mixed tournaments almost always end with the men’s final on the last Sunday – an implied highlight – with the women’s final played the day before. At the Italian Open in May, Elena Rybakina and Anhelina Kalinina take the field at 11 p.m. local time in a mostly empty stadium after rain and the men’s semifinals postponed their match for hours.
At least after Tuesday’s announcement, the money will be even – eventually.
“It’s time for a change,” said Simon. “The path is there now.”