Evidently there arestill those – like Nikolay Davydenko – who are stuck behind the times: that’s why words like those of the Russian, in 2024, create embarrassment and shame.
The former winner of the 2009 ATP Finals has taken up the never-ending controversy regarding prize money in tournaments differentiated or equal between men and women. The former ATP No.3 and winner of 21 ATP titles said that men, in the Slams, work and are on the court much more than women and therefore it is not egalitarian to pay everyone the same.
Coco Gauff© Wta Tour / Fair Use
After an exhibition match on the occasion of the end of the career of countrywoman Elena Vesnina, the 43-year-old expressed in a very articulate way the issue of prizes in tennis and the issue of equal pay between ATP and WTA, speaking to the media Match TV.
“In tournaments of the 250, 500, 1000 categories it is possible that there are the same prizes. But when we talk about Grand Slam tournaments the same argument does not apply. Women never play five-set matches.
Serena Williams, for example, during her career has won certain Grand Slam tournaments, losing only 10 games during the whole tournament. Not in a single match, I mean in the whole tournament. She has won many sets 6-0 or 6-1 or 6-2 without even sweating or using up energy.
And men instead often lose 10 games only in the first match when things go very well, we have to fight. Sometimes you play five sets in the first round and then you lose. Male tennis players work three times harder than female tennis players in this type of tournament. It is so it’s unfair to pay them the same,” explained the Russian, trying to argue his controversial point of view.
Obviously the debate on the issue has been very heated for years: there have already been the first signs of agreement, which should lead to equal prize money for men and women, in the near future. Or at least that’s what we hope. That’s why the Russian’s words seem to come from another era, becoming completely extemporaneous in the context that we live in at this moment in history.
Tennis World USA