Whether it is Serena Williams who completes her fairytale comeback in the Wimbledon ladies final on Saturday or Angelique Kerber who spoils the American’s happy ending, the ladies singles’ champion in 2018 will walk away with the same £2.25m cheque as their male counterpart.
Serena was one of the leading campaigners when Wimbledon became the last grand slam to offer equal prize money in 2007. But, more than a decade later, the picture outside of the majors shows that across the calendar year, the gender pay gap is still a chasm.
So far in 2018, 71 per cent of the world’s top 100 men have earned more than women of the same ranking, based on prize money per tournament played.
In the past, some top male players including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have claimed men should earn more as they attract more people. The data, though, suggests viewing figures are not gender based but determined by individual performance and personality.
From 2010 to 2014, the women’s US Open final drew a larger audience in America than the men’s final. Part of that was due to Serena Williams appearing in four of those finals. But more people tuned in to watch Kim Clijsters’s win in 2010 than they did for Nadal’s victory the same year, and more than 1.5m more people watched Samantha Stosur win than Djokovic in 2011.
As well as viewing figures, another common argument as to why men should earn more is that they play more tennis — best of five sets compared to the best of three that women play. Yet that is only true for the four grand slams each year — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The rest of the tour schedule consists of both genders playing best of three sets.