Women’s prize money in the four biggest pro tennis tournaments below grand slam level is being subsidised to the tune of nearly £25 million a year by the Women’s Tennis Association to keep women’s prize values at the same level as men’s. The grand slams (Australia, Wimbledon, Paris, New York) are rich enough to pay men and women equally out of their own revenues, but 62 per cent of the women’s prize money at the Madrid, Miami, Beijing and Indian Wells tournaments comes from the WTA, which tells the Telegraph the payments aren’t part of a strategy but are forced on it by the “realities associated with the value the marketplace pays” for women’s as opposed to men’s sports properties. There’s no equivalent subsidy in the men’s game, which paid out 75 per cent more overall than the women’s last year.
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