Gender pay gap highlighted in prize money at Dubai Championships

Jelena Ostapenko displayed some of the best tennis of her career to lift the title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last weekend, but she earned just 20% of what the equivalent men's winner will make this week.

The tournament in Dubai is one of the more star-studded stops on the ATP and WTA calendar, with several Top 10 players competing at the annual event. This year's edition featured eight of the WTA's top 10 players, but Ostapenko took home just one-fifth of the prize money the men’s winner will do, despite both events being worth the same number of ranking points.

Tennis has long been considered the model for gender equality when it comes to sport. Thanks to the influence of iconic figures such as Billie Jean King and the Williams sisters, every Grand Slam tournament now offers equal prize money to men and women.

In Dubai, the men’s winner will earn $523,740. Ostapenko, meanwhile, ended up with $104,180. At other competitions, like the Citi Open, the difference is even more drastic. Despite scrapping the women’s tournament during the pandemic, the tournament’s website still professes to have a combined men’s and women’s event and shows that the men’s prize money was nine times that of the women’s.

Ostapenko will be delighted by her performance in Dubai –– her first title since June 2021 and fifth WTA singles title overall. But though this victory is another milestone in her professional career, her prize for winning serves as a reminder that the road to gender equality is still ongoing.