NEW YORK — As Coco Gauff acquired her $3 million verify after profitable the US Open title earlier this month, she glanced to the far side of the stage and couldn’t hide her gratitude.
“Thanks Billie, for preventing for this,” she stated as she appeared in direction of Billie Jean King.
At simply 19, Gauff would not know a US Open the ultimate prize cash between the women and men. Her paycheck was the identical quantity because the one which males’s champion Novak Djokovic acquired.
This 12 months marked 50 years of equal pay on the match, commemorated with tributes to King — the groundbreaking pioneer who pushed to make it occur after founding the Girls’s Tennis Affiliation (WTA) earlier that very same 12 months.
The US Open turned the primary sporting occasion on the earth to supply equal purses for its female and male rivals in 1973, and since then, the three remaining Grand Slam occasions adopted go well with, beginning with the Australian Open, first in 1984 however constantly since 2001, and the French Open and Wimbledon in 2007.
“I’ve to thank Billie for giving me this chance to have this good, good job,” Venus Williams, who fought for equal pay at Wimbledon and the French Open, stated in a ceremony this month honoring King. “Thanks for having that braveness to get everybody in the appropriate route … I can not think about what that was like, however you probably did it. You probably did it properly. You remained a champion all through it, and a job mannequin to this present day.”
Wednesday marks one other fiftieth anniversary — that of King’s historic “Battle of the Sexes” match, by which she beat Bobby Riggs, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, on the Houston Astrodome. It was considered by an estimated 90 million individuals worldwide, and was lauded at the time as a triumph for women in sports.
With so many vital anniversaries, it is a milestone 12 months for girls’s tennis, however the place does the game stand now relating to equality?
Based on some gamers, there’s nonetheless extra to do.
“We have now equal pay on the Slams, nevertheless it’s not in every single place,” stated world No. 4 and WTA participant council member Jessica Pegula. “I feel that is just a little little bit of a false impression that perhaps the extra informal fan did not notice.
“We’re working in direction of getting girls’s sports activities to receives a commission extra, getting paid what they need to be. Particularly tennis, I really feel like we’re a number one instance virtually as a result of we are the highest-paid feminine sport, which is an enormous deal. For us, we already assume there’s a lot extra that must be completed, and we’re on the high.”
Whereas the 4 main occasions have now been providing equal prize cash for each singles champions for 16 years, the identical can’t be stated for most of the different tour-level occasions. Throughout the lead-in occasions for the US Open, neither of the 1000-level tournaments — the Canadian Open and the Western & Southern Open — provide equal prize cash, nor did the lately mixed 500-level occasion in Washington D.C.
For instance, Djokovic, the boys’s champion in Cincinnati, acquired $1.02 million, whereas Gauff, the ladies’s champion, earned lower than half of that quantity at $454,500. Each gained in best-of-three set codecs.
“I do imagine — and that is actually very unhappy — that the WTA is way from doing plenty of issues proper at this level.”
Ons Jabeur
Amy Binder, the WTA’s vp of world communications, stated such discrepancies are sadly widespread all through sports activities.
“As reported in [the Sports Business Journal], the value of the broadcast rights sold for the lately accomplished Girls’s World Cup ranged between $1-$10 million,” Binder stated in an e mail this week. “The identical rights for the boys’s World Cup had been $100-$200 million. This actuality is what’s felt throughout all girls’s skilled sport properties and is on the root of the numerous distinction within the compensation paid to male versus feminine athletes. It isn’t truthful, it isn’t proper, however it’s the actuality.”
In June, the WTA announced all mixed 500- and 1000-level occasions, just like the three tournaments talked about above, will provide equal prize cash by 2027, and the non-combined occasions at that stage will achieve this by 2033.
It is merely not sufficient, stated world No. 7 and three-time main finalist Ons Jabeur.
“I do imagine — and that is actually very unhappy — that the WTA is way from doing plenty of issues proper at this level,” Jabeur informed ESPN in August. “We have now this 10-year plan to get equal prize cash [at every event], however I’ve all the time questioned why this plan is now, and why we’re not already getting equal prize cash.”
The WTA agrees with that sentiment, in accordance with Binder.
“Progress, whereas by no means quick sufficient, is being made versus simply speaking about it,” Binder stated. “Whereas we might after all love for it to occur sooner, the method have to be sustainable, and it will take a while. We can not proceed to easily look forward to the business world to do what is true and what’s deserved, which is paying rights charges which can be equal to that of our male counterparts.”
When requested throughout a pre-tournament information convention concerning the lack of equal pay on the Western & Southern Open, which was owned and operated by the USTA till final 12 months, US Open match director and the group’s chief government {of professional} tennis Stacey Allaster additionally pointed to the completely different media offers as a part of the discrepancy.
“Definitely with Cincinnati, it was and nonetheless proper now’s a distinct participant dedication system, completely different broadcast agreements,” Allaster stated. “We all know now, along with [WTA chairman and CEO] Steve Simon’s management, the CBC’s partnership, Cincinnati, Canada, Rome at the moment are on a pathway for equal prize cash.”
As a part of the WTA’s pathway to equal prize cash, high gamers — like Pegula and Jabeur — might be required to play in additional occasions and among the top-tier 1000-level occasions might be prolonged from one week to 2. With an already grueling season that lasts from January to November, these adjustments weren’t welcomed by all.
“The irritating factor about it’s, they are saying, ‘Oh you need equal prize cash so now it’s a must to play extra tournaments,'” Jabeur stated. “It is like, ‘We’re not simply ok on our personal to get it?’ Should you go on social media and see the highest 10 from girls’s tennis and the highest 10 from males, for instance, you’ll be able to see the numbers. You may’t inform me individuals do not watch, do not care, that is simply mistaken.”
There are issues among the many gamers about different organizational choices from the WTA as properly. Maybe nothing has gotten extra consideration lately than the delayed announcement of a website for the WTA Finals, which start on Oct. 29.
Whereas the Affiliation of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Finals might be in Turin, Italy, for the third straight 12 months as a part of a five-year deal initially introduced in 2019, the WTA Finals location wasn’t revealed till earlier this month after a number of weeks of controversy.
The year-end occasion, which options the season’s high eight singles gamers and doubles groups, was initially slated to be performed in Shenzhen, China, from 2022 by 2030. However the 2022 version was held in Fort Price, Texas, after the WTA suspended all actions in China resulting from issues over former doubles world No. 1 Peng Shuai.
The relocated occasion drew headlines for its visible lack of fans in attendance, and the gamers wished to ensure the identical state of affairs did not occur once more in 2023.
“For positive it is fairly unlucky and annoying we haven’t any resolution but,” stated present world No. 2 Iga Swiatek in August, earlier than the placement was introduced. “After we had been in Fort Price, they type of assured us the choice [was] going to be made firstly of the 12 months.”
The WTA introduced in April that tournaments would resume in China this 12 months as assurances had been made relating to Peng’s security and “extra progress might be made” by returning to the nation than not. A 250-level occasion in Guangzhou is at present underway, and there are a number of tournaments scheduled within the nation for later this month and in October, together with the 1000-level China Open. The WTA Elite Trophy match, a second-tier year-end occasion, might be held in Zhuhai. However the WTA Finals weren’t introduced as a part of that return.
“For some motive the boys, they need the cash, they assume like that. I am like, ‘Whoa.’ We would like the cash, too however we actually need some [societal] change.”
Billie Jean King
Rumors swirled about potential locations, together with Saudi Arabia, which was met with heavy scrutiny as a result of nation’s historical past relating to rights for girls and people within the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood. The ATP had beforehand introduced the Subsequent Gen Finals can be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, by 2027.
Jabeur, who’s from Tunisia, was in favor of the concept, calling it a “nice step” for the nation and “one thing that might assist the Arab world have extra tennis gamers [and] get extra concerned in sports activities.” However others had been in opposition to it.
“I would like the WTA not go to Saudi Arabia,” Chris Evert, the retired 18-time main champion and present ESPN analyst, stated final month. “Clearly they’ve the human rights points and every thing, simply the best way they deal with girls. I’d be in opposition to it. However I haven’t got a vote.”
It’s unclear how critical the conversations with the Center Jap nation had been, however the backlash could have finally impacted the WTA’s resolution. Throughout the US Open it was introduced the occasion can be held in Cancun, Mexico. The WTA stated the selection was made primarily based on “a number of elements together with participant logistics, journey accessibility, venue capability and a dedication to supporting and showcasing girls’s tennis.”
Whereas talking at a panel dialogue on the US Open, King — who had beforehand expressed help for partaking in talks with Saudi Arabia — was joyful concerning the WTA’s resolution to go elsewhere for the match.
“I am glad we’re not going to Saudi Arabia proper now, as a result of Saudi Arabia, for girls, is absolutely troublesome,” King stated. “For some motive the boys, they need the cash, they assume like that. I am like, ‘Whoa.’ We would like the cash, too however we actually need some [societal] change.”
Nonetheless, Cancun provides one other complication for a number of of the ladies. The finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, which options a number of of the world’s greatest gamers representing eight nations, will get underway simply two days after its conclusion in Seville, Spain — about 5,000 miles away and with a seven-hour time distinction.
“I simply love the potential thought of China to Australia to North America to Europe to Australia,” wrote Ellen Perez, who will seemingly be a member of the Australian crew for the Billie Jean King Cup and is at present No. 6 within the race to make the WTA Finals in doubles, on social media.
After King gained the 1972 US Open title, she acquired a $10,000 paycheck — $15,000 lower than what Ilie Nastase, her male counterpart, earned. Upset by the injustice, she threatened to not play within the 1973 version of the match if there wasn’t equal pay.
“[In] 1972 on the press convention, on the media convention, I am sitting there internally considering, ‘I am having a tough time with this.’ I lastly stated to them, You already know, we’re not coming again subsequent 12 months until we get equal prize cash,” King stated. “Internally I am saying, ‘What have I completed? I’ve not talked to the ladies but. I have not talked to anyone but.’
“Then I spotted my job is to go get a sponsor. I figured if I may get a sponsor and present that we may make up the distinction, that the match can be exhausting put.”
She did simply that and labored straight with Bristol Myers Squibb to accumulate the cash. Each winners — John Newcombe and Margaret Court docket — acquired $25,000 in 1973.
King began the WTA the identical 12 months in an effort to present equal and truthful alternatives for girls within the sport. In comparison with many different girls’s sports activities leagues, it has been a runaway success, and ladies’s tennis gamers ceaselessly dominate the lists of highest-paid feminine athletes, due to their prize cash and endorsement alternatives.
However 50 years later, most of the challenges of attaining fairness stay.
That might be altering within the close to future. According to a recent report from The Telegraph, high-ranking representatives from the WTA and the ATP are set to satisfy on the finish of the month in London to debate a possible merger.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal voiced their support for the idea in 2020. John McEnroe referred to as it “inevitable” earlier this 12 months, and Kim Clijsters spoke in favor of it in July.
King has beforehand stated that is what she’s all the time wished.
“I agree [about the need to merge the WTA and ATP], and have been saying so for the reason that early Nineteen Seventies,” King tweeted in response to Federer in 2020. “One voice, ladies and men collectively, has lengthy been my imaginative and prescient for tennis. The WTA by itself was all the time Plan B…
“Let’s make it occur.”