“I don’t know why it’s not equal right now,” Paula Badosa BAFFLED about why female tennis players aren’t getting equal pay already

Paula Badosa is infuriated with the prize money difference between men and women player at the Italian Open.

“I don’t know why it’s not equal right now,” Paula Badosa BAFFLED about why female tennis players aren’t getting equal pay already

Image Credit: CNN

Spanish tennis star Paula Badosa lashed out at the Italian Open for the disparity in prize money for men and women. The pool of money for the ATP section of the tournament is more than double the WTA. This is a massive difference with the men’s pool being €7,705,780 vs €3,572,618 for the women. Agree that there is a huge increase in the women’s prize money from last year, approx. 41.36% more than in 2022. However, the needle is still stuck on the point that men make double of what women do in Rome.

“I don’t know why it’s not equal right now,” said Paula Badosa impatiently. The Italian Open is amongst the few tournaments apart from the Grand Slams which have both men’s and women’s matches running parallelly. But in most of such tournaments including the grand slam, pay parity has been achieved. Last week Madrid Open concluded and both the winners Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka lifted a cheque for the exact same amount.

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Well, the size of their birthday cakes was a different matter altogether. Angelo Binaghi, the chief executive of Italy’s tennis federation Italian Open will , announced recently that the Italian Open would achieve pay equity only by 2025. This has left women players impatient and disgruntled.

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Paula Badosa won her first-round match at the Italian Open against German Anna-Lena Friedsam. Badosa had to dig deep to win this 3-setter with a final score of 4-6, 6-2, 7-6. Paula will play Ons Jabeur in the next round of 64. This is going to be an intense battle between the 2 players in great form.

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Not just Paula Badosa, but others are also FRUSTRATED with the disparity in prize money

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Image Credit: The Sun

Paula Badosa is a leader of a newly made Professional Tennis Players Association(PTPA). The main objective of PTPA is to unite and mobilize tennis players in order to create transparency and equity throughout professional tennis. Equity being important to PTPA, this is the complete opposite of what it aims to achieve. World no. 35, Badosa spoke some hard truth about Italian Open. She said, “They don’t inform us(about the prize money). They say this is what you get and you have to play.”

She is not the only one who has spoken of late against this stark disparity. Ons Jabeur said in an interview ahead of the Italian Open “It’s really Frustrating“. The world no. 2 added, “It’s time for a change. It’s time for the tournament to do better.”

Even male players are advocating for parity. Denis Shapovalov who is a flag bearer of women empowerment, whose mother has coached him also spoke against the leaders of the sport not being unified in such decisions. “I think some people might think of gender equality as mere political correctness,” said world no. 27. For the leaders taking these decisions he said, “Deep down they don’t feel that women deserve as much.”

Hope this inequality issue will cease to exist soon in the future. And women players will have one less thing to worry about.

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