French Open prize money
If there's one thing more annoying than another it's the misrepresentation of the French Open's decision to pay the women's singles winner the same as the men's as "prize money parity". It's not. Not even close. It's even more hypocritical than paying the winner less, which reflects the true state of affairs: the women are paid less than the men except in the singles qualifying rounds. The fact is that players are *not* paid to play matches, that's the fun part; they are paid to train six to eight hours every day, travel 300-plus days a year, and put up with being trashed by fans, critics, and journalists and having to pee in cups and report their whereabouts at all times to the anti-doping authorities. .
Here (PDF) is the actual prize money breakdown from 2005 and 2004. Note that although more of the top female stars still play doubles, the men's doubles money is higher.
In her book about women's tennis of a few years ago (published only in French, I'm afraid), Nathalie Tauziat commented that more important than the gender difference, however, is the percentage of prize money awarded to the winners. Changing the percentage so that somewhat more was distributed for the earlier rounds would be fairer, and would also make it easier for those players to be able to afford the coaches and assistance to help them play their best tennis -- which , as fans, is what we should all want to see. She blamed the American habit of always quoting the winner's check, and noted that more emphasis on the size of the total purse would help. Unfortunately, I think tennis, too, has fallen victim to the increasing gap between what the stars get and what everyone else gets.
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