Former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka has stated that she is inspired and motivated on the WTA Tour by tennis legends Billie Jean King and Venus Williams fighting for equal pay.
This comes after the recent announcement by the Women's Tennis Association that they are planning to ensure all WTA 1000 and 500 combined events offer equal prize money by 2027, and to do the same for single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2033.
Whilst all Grand Slams now offer equal prize money, the men's ATP Tour gives significantly higher sums of prize money at their events than the WTA pays to its women players on their tour.
A clear example of this is the Indian Wells in California. Despite being an ATP 1000 Masters and a WTA 1000 event, this year's prize pool for men's singles was just over $10.1 million, while for women's singles it was $8.8 million.
Speaking in a press conference before her opening match at the DC Open, the 34-year-old Belarusian revealed that her own ambition, as well as the efforts of players before her to receive equal pay, motivated her to advance in the WTA Tour,
"With the years of experience & my ambition for making the work place better & drawing inspiration from Billie Jean King & Venus who fought hard for equal prize money, that's something that inspires & motivates me to keep going," she said.
79-year-old King is often considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, but one other major impact she had on the sport was to ensure equal prize money at the US Open. In 1973, she was enraged to discover that she would be earning $10,000, which was $15,000 less than the men's victor Ilie Nastase.
As a result, King met with the tournament director Bill Talbert and demonstrated that a fan poll showed great interest in women's tennis. She also revealed that she had secured a sponsor in "Ban" deodorant which could make up the difference in prize money.
After this, equal prize money became an official part of the US Open, and the Australian Open and Roland Garros eventually followed suit.
However, it was not until the efforts of Venus Williams thirty years later that Wimbledon finally offered to give equal prize money to its women players.
After the 43-year-old star achieved her first victory at the grasscourt major in 2000, she was paid substantially less than her male counterpart, which led to a seven-year fight with the SW19 to ensure an equal amount.
This finally came to fruition in 2007, when Venus took home an equally sized paycheque after her fourth victory at the event.
However, it can be argued that there is still a long way to go for the rest of tennis to be completely equal.
Azarenka motivated by fight for equal prize money: “With the years of experience & my ambition for making the work place better & drawing inspiration from Billie Jean King & Venus who fought hard for equal prize money, that's something that inspires & motivates me to keep going”
