Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal respond to Serena Williams’ call to arms for equal pay
After Serena Williams made a call to arms for the ATP’s top tennis players to join her in the fight for equal pay outside of the Grand Slams, two of the biggest names in the game, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, gave their views on subject.
Williams believes men and women must work together in order to breach the pay gap between the WTA and ATP Tours, which remains vast. For example, at the Rogers Cup in 2018, male winner Nadal pocketed roughly £792,000 for a week’s work at the Masters 1000 event.
Female champion Simona Halep walked away with £403,000 in the Premier 5 level competition. At the same level in Cincinnati just a week later, Novak Djokovic picked up about £845,000 for his victory over Federer, while Kiki Bertens only took home £411,000. On the clay in Rome, Nadal earned £726,000 compared to Elina Svitolina’s £488,000.
The figures make for uncomfortable reading. There’s certainly no argument for women working less at these tournaments, with both men and women playing best-of-three sets. Williams is keen to make noise on the subject and bring the fight for equal pay across the board but the ATP stars haven’t always been forthcoming to lend a hand in the past.
Maria Sharapova claimed male players had been ‘really tough’ on women pushing for equal prize money at Grand Slams but has anything changed? Will the men join Williams this time? Federer certainly seemed open to the idea of lending a helping hand. ‘Look, I’m very happy that the prize money is all over the place, to be quite honest,’ the Swiss said after his fourth round defeat to Greek sensation Stefanos Tstisipas.