"It feels a bit like spoiling": Daniela Hantuchova criticizes WTA players complaining about prize money, opposes Maria Sharapova

Daniela Hantuchova has criticized WTA players for complaining about prize money, including the gender pay gap, on the Tour. This is in contrast to Maria Sharapova's recent comments condemning the inequality.

Several former and active players have spoken out about the disparity in prize money between the ATP and WTA Tours. Being a professional tennis player is an expensive career to fund, with immense costs for coaching, travel, and equipment.

While Grand Slams offer the same amount of prize money to male and female players, tournaments on the WTA Tour offer significantly less to its players than those on the ATP Tour. Recently, five-time major champion Sharapova called out the disparity, calling it "insane".

"Just this week, there’s a men’s tournament actually still happening in Shanghai with the winner’s prize check of $1.2 million. In the same week, there’s a women’s tournament in China with the winner’s check at $120,000 [...] The disparity is insane and that needs to be addressed," she said at the Bloomberg screentime conference with Jason Kelly. 

However, former World No. 5 Hantuchova disagreed with these complaints. Although she said the lower earnings were "difficult", players should be grateful to tournaments regardless.

"It feels a bit like spoiling. Especially on the women's circuit, where the prize money is what it is, and the girls certainly don't work from [four in the morning] in a mine somewhere. It's difficult, but we never allowed ourselves to criticize because we knew that the checks we were getting were thanks to the tournament," she said on the Livesport Daily podcast.

Nevertheless, the Slovak former player did agree with players' concerns over the WTA's scheduling of tournaments, saying it was a driving factor in her decision to retire in 2017.

"Regarding travel and the destinations in which WTA tournaments are played, on the contrary, I agree with the players. From this point of view, tennis is the most demanding sport that exists. For me personally, it was one of the reasons I quit.

"The body could no longer handle the time differences, I kept waking up out of the normal rhythm, it was unhealthy. I told myself that it wasn't even worth the money, that I'd rather be well at 60. It was over the edge," she explained.