I finished the last article on “Court Chronicles” with an invitation / rhetorical question, addressed to the WTA and to the ITF, related to the support they will give to injured or lower ranked players, just as the ATP will do next year.
As expected, the two organizations – known to be slow decision-making, when not uninspired (see the case of team competitions, where the ITF made a complete mess of a rule) – did not budge .
Obviously, I was not the only one waiting for a decision, and my colleagues from the WTA circuit, who have a voice, ran out of patience and took the initiative.
In a letter to the WTA, signed by most of the top 20 players, reasoning that “the tour is becoming incredibly demanding on us, creating physical and mental stress, not sustainable in the long run”, they requested, among other things, a guaranteed minimum wage, depending on the place in the ranking:
- $500,000 for top 100
- $250,000 for 101-175
- $100,000 for 176-250
For now, the full list of claims is not known (source: @jonwertheim).
We notice, comparing with what the ATP has already approved, that the amounts requested by the women are much higher, probably so that they have a margin for negotiations.
As example, for the last ranked in the top 100, the income is around $500,000, so the minimum guaranteed would be useful for those who do not play a whole season.
But for the last ranked in the second (101-175) and third interval (176-250) the sums of $250,000 and $100,000 are significantly higher than those won from prizes (it also depends on whether the player had good results in doubles). Obviously, we are talking about gross amounts, of which the player is left with roughly half.
I know that there are and will be a lot of comments on the subject, in which, on the one hand, arguments with gender equality are contradicted by the smaller audience of women’s tennis. And on the other hand, players are asked (in this regard, tennis lovers are, coincidentally or not, more demanding with women) to earn their own money from the prizes and be satisfied with what they get, because even that is a lot.
These controversies, like the cynical argument “to give up tennis, if one cannot deal with stress” are steril.
One that matter, I just want to quote Maria Sharapova – in a recent Bloomberg interview, quoted by @TennisLetter – who considers the difference between ATP financial prizes vs. WTA “insane” and gives as an example the two tournaments played in China last week, where ATP 1000 Shanghai champion – Hubert Hurkacz – collected $1,262,220, and Qinwen Zheng was rewarded for the WTA 500 title Zhengzhou, with $120,150.
Last week champions on the ATP & WTA Tour
Photo Credit: @atp, @wta, @wta_koreaopentennis
Even if the two tournaments were of different categories, 10 times more seems… too much.
I will only invoke, once again, the comparison with the other sports in the top audiences (tennis is in top 4 the most popular sports in the world).
In order for tennis to remain in this top, it must produce a show, therefore values. However, in the modern world, without a proper financial compensation, this is not possible.
But the money has to be found somewhere, and the WTA balance has been negative for two years in a row (the one for 2022 is not yet available) [source: @AnnaK_4ever]:
The blogger cited above suspects that this deficit, as well as the growing pressures of the players, are two of the reasons why the women’s tennis organization wanted to grant Saudi Arabia the organization of the WTA Finals. This year this project failed, following vehement objections, but in the future it is possible to give as an argument the need for money to satisfy all demands (Riyadh was ready to pay $15 million prize money this year, and Cancun will award only $9 million).
As for the ITF circuit – where I am directly interested – David Haggerty has just been re-elected President of the organization for the third consecutive term of 4 years.
Let’s hope that his attention will move from the team competitions and towards the ITF circuit, where the improvements have been minor in the last year, and their pace, slow.
I repeat, for those who have not read the previous article, I do not dream of amounts comparable to those above for the players who are playing ITF tournaments. I only ask for a minimum, meant to protect us, so that a greater number of players can remain in the professional circuit. Like that, the level will be higher and implicitly, the global value of this sport will increase.
I will end the article with an interesting statement from one of last week’s champions – Jessica Pegula -who spoke extensively, about the differences between the main and secondary circuits.
Sursă video: @playersvsitf
