Rafael Nadal won his record 11th French Open over the weekend, and he took home the same paycheck as women’s champion Simona Halep. Judging by some remarks he made after the tournament, it’s safe to conclude Nadal does not believe that is fair.
The US Open became the first of the four Grand Slam competitions to pay men and women equally in 1973, and all four — the US Open, French Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon — have had equal pay since 2007. Nadal was asked about equal pay in an interview with an Italian magazine, and he said he believes the players who generate more viewership should be paid more.
Q: “In tennis, should women earn as much as men?”
Nadal: “It’s a comparison we shouldn’t even make. Female models earn more than male models and nobody says anything. Why? Because they have a larger following. In tennis too, who gathers a larger audience earns more”.
— naturelle (@naturelle13) June 9, 2018
Nadal’s comments have been met with a great deal of backlash, but this is hardly a new debate. Roughly two years ago, Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore made some sexist remarks about how female tennis players should be on their knees thanking God that people like Nadal and Roger Federer came along and “carried the sport.” That led to a response from Novak Djokovic, who made similar remarks to the ones Nadal made over the weekend and said he believes money should be divided up based on metrics like fan interest.
As Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports notes, men have not always been the bigger draws as Grand Slam events. Serena and Venus Williams have been the most popular players in some tournaments, and the women’s final at the US Open drew more viewers than the men’s final each year from 2010-2014. In instances like those, Djokovic would argue that the women are deserving of a bigger cut of the prize money, which you can read about in greater detail here.
While unpopular, Nadal’s comments have resulted in more of a rekindling of an old debate rather than sparking a new one.
H/T LBS reader Scott Crasnick
