Daria Kasatkina says female tennis players should and deserve to be paid better since only the top-50 WTA players are doing well while “the rest are just surviving.”
Over the last few years, there has been a lot of talk about the gender pay gap in tennis. At the Grand Slam level and certain Masters events, men and women are paid equally. But outside of those tournaments, there is still a significant gap in the money that men and women earn.
Addressing the gender pay gap in tennis, Kasatkina underlined that it doesn’t make sense to compare men’s and women’s tennis. But Kasatkina also highlighted that female players deserve to be paid better so more players on the WTA Tour make a solid living.
Kasatkina: The top-50 are doing well, the rest are just surviving
“Comparing men’s and women’s sports makes no sense at all. I don’t understand why we’re doing it, we’re not competing with each other,” Kasatkina said in a conversation with Elis Kostik.
“I think the topic of equal prize money was not invented by tennis players. We realize that this is impossible nowadays. We want our prize money to increase. And it’s absolutely normal when you work and you want the best, you want to be paid more. Especially when you know that the capacity to pay is there. We know a little bit more than others, so we’re not satisfied. That’s what we’re fighting for.
“No one wants to take men’s money away from them. We don’t want to sit with what we have because it’s not enough. The top-50 WTA are doing well, the rest are just surviving. ATP has a better situation with that. Even if we look at the prize money at WTA 250 or WTA 125, it’s absurd. After all the taxes and expenses, there’s nothing to live on.”
This year, the WTA approved a plan to achieve equal pay in tennis by 2033. There is still a lot of work to be done but the WTA has been insisting that they are working on ending the gender pay gap in tennis.
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