Daria Kasatkina says it is illogical to compare men and women when it comes to the issue of prize money in tennis.
The Russian world No.18 says she believes the topic of equal prize money ‘wasn’t created by tennis players’ during a recent podcast which was conducted in Russian. Equal prize money has been implemented at every Grand Slam tournament since 2007 with the US Open being the first to do so in 1973. Although there are still differences at some combined tournaments due to the men’s and women’s Tour’s having their own governing bodies. For example at the 2023 Citi Open in Washington, the men’s champion won $353,455 which was almost three times more than the women’s winner ($120,150).
“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,” said Kasatkina.
“I think the topic of equal prize money was not invented by tennis players. We realise that this is impossible nowadays.”
Kasatkina, who has won $10.7M in prize money so far in her career, believes the focus should instead be on trying to ensure that players on the Tour have sufficient levels of pay that enable them to continue their careers. According to the WTA’s Prize Money Leaders rankings, 42 players earned more than $1M during 2023. However, outside the top 200, nobody earned more than $191,000. These figures are before taxes are deducted and don’t take into account costs such as traveling and paying for coaches.
“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,” Kasatkina explained.
“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.”
In June the WTA revealed a plan to restructure its Tour in order to implement equal prize money at its top events. Under the plan, Combined WTA events are set to offer equal prize money in 2027 while separate WTA 1000 and 500 events will offer the same money as their equivalent ATP events in 2033.
A more recent change at the WTA involved Steve Simon who has relinquished his role as CEO to become chairman. The vacant CEO position will be filled in due course with that person having to report to Simon who has been criticised in recent weeks by players over a series of issues.
“The WTA is not at the rock bottom, but the current position is not great,” Kasatkina commented.
“Nearly all the players are not happy, there is no progress in the organization and there is no marketing.’
“We are trying to fight with the help of PTPA (Professional Tennis Players Association), they have taken the role of a representative because we are not lawyers, we don’t know the legal issues. They have professionals there who know exactly what to do.’
“The WTA Finals in Cancun was a crucial moment. The problem is that the whole internet was laughing at the coolest WTA tournament with the best players, and it turned into a joke.”
The 26-year-old has accused the governing body of not doing enough to promote the sport and has branded their WTA TV network as ‘one of the worst platforms’ compared to the ATP’s TennisTV.
Kasatkina will begin her 2024 season at the Brisbane International next week.
