Tennis prize money differs by sex

Don’t look for a boycott of Wimbledon by women’s tennis players angered over a decision to keep their prize money well below the levels earned by men. They’re angry, but they’re not ready to walk.

“I don’t expect that,” said Bart McGuire, CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association. “I believe boycotts, strikes and lockouts are atom bombs. I don’t support that at this time. It’s been established by the NBA and major league baseball that work stoppages are counter-productive.”

Instead McGuire said he would continue to pursue the Grand Slams, seeking to equalize the prize money. Only the U.S. Open offers the same payoffs to men and women.

While announcing a 5.4 percent increase in prize money to $12.16 million, John Curry, chairman of the All England Club, rejected the WTA demand to make the women’s payoffs equal to the men’s. Wimbledon’s men’s winner will receive $728,000, and the women’s winner will get $655,200.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” McGuire said. “I view the Grand Slams as the leaders of the sport. The U.S. Open took a leadership position on this 25 years ago. The other two have been more responsive.”

Wimbledon’s payoff for the women is 83 percent of the men’s figure. At the Australian Open, the women get 94 percent, and at the French Open, it’s 90 percent.

Curry said Wimbledon’s payoff position is based on opinion polls of its patrons.

“We do surveys of all the people who come on a regular basis and, in three surveys over the past 10 years, 70 percent of the people say that first and foremost the thing they want to watch is men’s singles,” Curry said.

McGuire said he had never seen any of the surveys and said television ratings for women’s matches were consistently higher than for the men.

“At the Australian Open, of the 20 top-rated matches, 15 including the top five were women’s matches,” he said. “In eight of the last nine Grand Slams, in the United States the women’s final ratings were higher.”

McGuire dismissed suggestions that the men should get higher payoffs because their matches in Grand Slam events are best-of-5 sets instead of the best-of-3 played by the women.

“In actual stopwatch figures at Wimbledon a couple of years ago, in one hour on the court, the women played eight minutes and the men under four. Points are longer on the women’s side on grass.

“Let me ask you this: Would you rather watch a great two-hour movie or a great four-hour movie?

“Pavarotti doesn’t get less for singing 2 1/2 hours of Verdi instead of 4 1/2 hours of Wagner.”

Curry objected to the tone of the WTA demand for higher payoffs.

“(The women) have every right to request, but to demand it, I think, is hurtful and damaging to Wimbledon. It implies that we treat them unfairly and that’s not true from the evidence.

“I think that the players enjoy playing Wimbledon and the prize money is only a small portion of their income.”

McGuire welcomed the decision by Wimbledon to increase women’s doubles prize money by 10.5 percent.

“Wimbledon’s recognition of the increased strength of women’s doubles is heartening,” McGuire said. “But its refusal to give the women a higher percentage of the singles prize money is extremely disappointing.” Associated Press