Iga Swiatek mentioned she hopes the ladies’s soccer governing physique can do extra to spice up the tour in 2023 and additional scale back the pay hole that exists between males’s and ladies’s excursions outdoors of the game’s largest tournaments.
Tennis has sought to be a pacesetter within the battle for equality over the previous twenty years with equal prize cash provided to women and men in any respect 4 Grand Slam tournaments.
Occasions on the WTA Tour, nevertheless, nonetheless usually provide much less prize cash than these on the Males’s Tour, which operates its personal circuit.
World primary Swiatek mentioned one of many major priorities for the tour because it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary must be to make sure the occasions are extra engaging to gamers, sponsors, organizers and followers.
“After all, I want to see the WTA develop commercially, change into extra standard, scale back the distinction between WTA and ATP when it comes to value and appeal to followers,” Swiatek mentioned.
A report within the FinancialTimes mentioned the lads’s ATP Tour in the midst of final yr provided gamers 75% extra prize cash in tournaments – excluding Grand Slams – than the ladies’s tour.
“Our tennis brings the identical feelings as males’s tennis. There’s something you could find in ladies’s tennis that you simply will not discover on ATP,” Swiatek mentioned.
“Proper now, after a couple of years of listening to, we’re not constant, we’re really constant. There are prime gamers who’re taking part in very properly in most tournaments.”
In a choice that’s anticipated to value the affiliation a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} in broadcast and sponsorship, the WTA has suspended profitable tournaments in China over considerations for former double No. 1 Peng Shuai.
She accused a senior Chinese language authorities official of sexual assault in a 2021 social media put up that was faraway from the nation’s web. She later denied making the cost.
American Jessica Pegula, world No. 3 and a member of the WTA Gamers Council, echoed Swiatek’s feedback.
“Hopefully we are able to maintain pushing for equal prize cash in any respect occasions, being on TV extra,” Pegula mentioned.
She pointed to the United Cup blended staff match earlier this season as one method to obtain this.
“We’re beginning to see slowly extra, particularly with the United Cup, the response of everybody eager to see women and men taking part in on the identical pitch, on the identical staff, which was actually enjoyable for us. Folks adore it. have a look at this.”
#Iga #Swiatek #hopes #WTA #scale back #wage #disparities #mens #womens #excursions #Tennis #Information