This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.
Since 2007, every Grand Slam of tennis has awarded equal prize money to its male and female competitors. Although it is not universally true across the sport, other tournaments have also followed suit. Initially that might seem equitable, but in the interest of real fairness, player pay should be determined according to one of three measures: talent, revenue generated or amount of work. By each of these metrics, men’s tennis players should be making more money than their female counterparts.
Men’s tennis players are unequivocally better than women’s tennis players. The Williams’ sisters, upon making their way to the tops of the women’s game as young players, famously claimed they could beat any man outside of the top 200 in the world. They were both annihilated by a man ranked 203rd, who claimed that they would have had no chance against any man in the top 500. Serena Williams has been outspoken about how pay in tennis is not meritocratic, and she’s correct. If she were paid based on her talent level instead of her gender, she wouldn’t make a livable wage.
Luckily, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) operates its own tour for women, so gifted female tennis players can also play professionally. The tour enjoys a healthy enough financial standing, as there are many fans of women’s tennis the world over. However, the fan base of the WTA is far smaller than that of its male counterpart, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). In fact, more Americans viewed the 2015 Wimbledon men’s finals featuring two Europeans than the women’s final featuring America’s own Serena Williams. In 2016, there were more Canadians watching Milos Raonic than Americans watching Serena. And in the 2016 Wimbledon finals, the BBC saw nearly three times as many viewers tune in for the men’s final than the women’s final. These huge differences in viewership mean huge differences in sponsor dollars, a critical revenue driver.
Unbiased indicators indicate that men’s tennis is simply a more popular and marketable game. In 2015, Serena Williams was the highest paid women’s tennis player in endorsements, yet she lagged tens of millions behind the top men. Companies like Rolex and Moet & Chandon are free to pay players what they think they are worth to them, and consequently the most marketable players bring home the biggest paychecks. It is a crime that the Grand Slam tournaments stray from this. They are now forced to treat the ATP and WTA as equally marketable, when in fact the viewership numbers and every other economic indicator tells us the value of the ATP is far greater.
In Grand Slam tournaments, men also play far more points than women; women’s matches require winning just two sets, while men’s require winning three. This ends up being a serious difference over the course of a tournament. During the 2015 Wimbledon, men’s champion Novak Djokovic played 50 percent more tennis than women’s champion Serena Williams, yet walked away with the same paycheck. Even the men’s semifinalists played significantly more tennis than Serena. It is simply unconscionable to justify the same level of pay for a different level of work.
I think it is great that women’s tennis is flourishing — I really do. In a world where the WNBA still requires the NBA to prop it up and the nation of the Women’s FIFA World Cup Champions struggles to maintain a professional league, it’s encouraging to see the success of the WTA. Regardless, I value equality, and it is not at all equitable to have identical men’s and women’s prize pools for Grand Slams. This experiment in political correctness has lasted long enough.
Novak Djokovic is one of the more outspoken players about men receiving the increase in pay that they deserve. He’s an ideal champion for this cause. Unfortunately, this is a politically unpopular opinion, and has cost a few tournament directors their jobs. These men have their work cut out for them in today’s PC climate to get the money they deserve. Still, men’s tennis players must continue to fight until they can one day break through the glass ceiling of artificially balanced pay in their sport.
Contact Grant Avalon at gavalon ‘at’ stanford.edu.