"If you are a female player, your chances of surviving as a pro are a lot lower": Shapovalov hits out on gender gap in tennis during essay

Denis Shapovalov is the latest to pen an essay for the Players Tribune titled The Gender Gap Should Not Exist following a piece by Jessica Pegula about her mother's cardiac arrest and also the American as well as Iga Swiatek speaking out vocally about the gender gap in tennis.

Shapovalov himself sees it first hand as he explains in the piece with his girlfriend, Mirjam Bjorklund who is a top 150 player but mainly plays WTA 250 tournaments and as a result can see the difference.

"I said to Mirjam, “Oh, great! You’ll get at least $7,000 just to be in the main draw.” She just looked at me like I was completely new to tennis. I’ll never forget it," he wrote.

She was like, “Denis … I think it’s like a thousand dollars.”

I was like, “What are you talking about? How is that possible??”

I’m not sure everyone realizes how damaging this is for tennis. Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and I want to talk about the gender gap. It’s so unfair. It doesn’t make sense at all. And it matters, because the expenses are crazy in tennis: You travel all year, you stay in hotels, you pay your coaching staff. The big stars don’t have to worry about it, but many on the tour are struggling just to break even. For these players, prize money is not about getting a nice lump of extra cash. It’s about survival.

"Unfortunately, it seems that if you are a female player, your chances of surviving as a pro are a lot lower … because you are a woman," he continued.

"I still don’t understand the thought process. Some say women don’t sell as many tickets, but when I go to matches the stadiums are full. I took a picture of the stands when Mirjam was playing Daria Saville at the WTA 250 in Washington, D.C., in August last year. It was packed. The game was crazy intense. The quality was unbelievable."

"That WTA 250 in D.C. had players like Jessica Pegula, who was top 10 in the world. The champ made $33,200. This may sound like a lot, but imagine how many years of hard work you need to win a tournament like that. It’s insane. Then compare it to men’s tennis. I made the final of the ATP 250 in Seoul last September. As a runner-up, I got $100,000. I mean, it’s not even close!"

"You should be given the same opportunities regardless of gender, color, race … regardless of anything."

"So let’s give everyone the same chance. Let’s pay out the same prize money. Let’s stop talking about reducing the gender gap.

"If we want tennis to be fair, it should not exist at all."