Remarkably, as if there were anything more to say on the subject, the topic of equal prize money when it comes to Grand Slam tennis never strays far from so many spectators’ lips. Whether it’s disgruntled viewers of either gender, or sordid journalists searching for clicks, The Shimmering Ostrich firmly condemns such grotty behaviour, and avows that equal pay should forever persist.
The US Open, the last of the four tennis Grand Slam events, has a longer history than most on the theme of equal prize money, veritably a trailblazer when it offered men and women equal pay back in 1973. The French Open and Wimbledon by contrast took until 2007 to fully catch up. Boasting a 10% purse increase, just a few weeks ago the US Open became the richest tennis tournament ever competed, offering both its male and female champions a whopping $3.5 million from a total fund of $46.3 million.
But the Grand Slams and a few other prestigious events aside, at many tournaments the women can still expect to receive less prize money than the men. This occurs even though outside of the Slams, all matches regardless of gender consist of the best of three sets. A study carried out in 2014 by the ITF concluded that owing largely to this imbalance in prize money, 336 male players could earn enough to cover their average expenses, in contrast to just 253 women.
Are the likes of Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber, Agnieszka Radwanska, Simona Halep, and Caroline Wozniacki really any less well known or exciting to watch than Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, and Milos Raonic? Surely any red-blooded, cisgendered, heterosexual, unpartnered, amorously-inclined male viewer thinks not!
Now in an attempt to even the playing field without accruing much additional expense, the WTA has proposed a sort of mini-league taking into account the results from a group of secondary tournaments. The prize money offered at these tournaments won’t change, but the winner of the mini-league will be lavishly compensated, in the form of a date with Czech superstar and serial tennis romancer Radek ‘Sexy’ Stepanek.
Stepanek has previously been engaged to the Swiss five-time Grand Slam singles winner Martina Hingis, who continues to be successful on the doubles circuit; married to the Czech starlet Nicole Vaidisova, who briefly reached as high as the top ten; and he dated for a few months with Petra Kvitova, twice Wimbledon champion. But following the end of that relationship, last year he suggested he was ‘done dating tennis players’, and the women’s tour duly wept.
A few months shy of his thirty-eighth birthday, Stepanek might have fallen outside of the top hundred in the men’s singles rankings, but he continues to be formidable going solo or in a pair. And with his lithe physique and slightly bulbous, eminently kissable lips, he remains as ever an enticing catch. Generously coming out of dating retirement to lend a rugged hand, an all expenses paid evening with Radek is sure for one lucky winner to more than make up for the shortfall in her designer pouch.
