Female tennis players 'spoiled' for wanting equal pay as they aren't 'working in mines'
Daniela Hantuchova said it seemed like players were "being spoiled" when they called for equal prize money in tennis.
Retired tennis star Daniela Hantuchova has slammed “spoiled” WTA stars who want to earn as much money as their male counterparts. The former world No 5 claimed that they couldn’t criticise the prize money on offer as they aren’t “working from four in the morning somewhere in the mines”.
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While prize money at the Grand Slams has been equal for a few years, there’s still a massive disparity between the funds on offer at regular events on the ATP and WTA Tours. The WTA has already announced a pathway to pull parity with the ATP by 2033 while stars continue to speak out on the issue.
Venus Williams has long been an advocate for equal pay and played an instrumental role in Wimbledon offering the same amount to men and women. Maria Sharapova also recently voiced her concerns over the disparity in the tours despite being retired. But not everyone agrees with their fight, as another former pro in Hantuchova said it “is what it is” when it comes to WTA players’ prize money.
“It seems to me a bit like being spoiled,” the Slovakian star told the Livesport Daily podcast. “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.”
A seven-time title winner, Hantuchova also said that they weren’t able to condemn the money on offer because it was coming from the tournament. She continued: “It’s tough, but we never allowed ourselves to criticise because we knew the cheques we were getting were because of the tournament.”
The 40-year-old was more forgiving when it came to another challenging aspect of the tennis tour - the gruelling schedule demands. “Regarding travel and the destinations in which WTA tournaments are played, on the contrary, I agree with the players,” she added.
“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.”
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While plenty of players will echo Hantuchova’s concerns about the scheduling, many won’t be happy with her comments about equal pay. This year alone, there have been huge discrepancies at even the biggest tournaments on the calendar - including the recent 1000-point events in China.
Speaking at a Bloomberg conference, Sharapova pointed out the difference in prize money for the ATP players in Shanghai and the WTA athletes in Beijing. “There’s a men’s tournament actually still happening in Shanghai with the winner’s prize check of £990,000 ($1.2 million). In the same week, there’s a women’s tournament in China with the winner’s check at £99,000 ($120,000),” she said.
The WTA has already committed to offering equal prize money over the next decade. Earlier this year, the women’s tour announced that WTA 1000 and 500 combined events would attain equal prize money by 2027 and single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events would do the same by 2033.
