A debate exploded in the tennis community yesterday over the gap in earnings between the
ATP and
WTA and a noted journalist added his perspective comparing Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka.
WTA players don't earn as much as ATP players. It's a well-known fact and while unfair it's likely not going to change unless some things on the tour fundamentally change. Being the lesser popular variant of the sport hurts the WTA tour as well but the disparity in earnings is just an issue when you compare the tour.
There are examples on the WTA Tour as well with noted journalist Jon Wertheim noting that Naomi Osaka will earn quite a bit more than current world number one Iga Swiatek despite being out of the sport for a long time and her ranking being 315 right now:
"In theory CVC investment will help close that gap…Meant for discussion, not argument: is there (or should there be) similar discomfort that Naomi Osaka (No.315) will make $60m and Iga Swiatek (No.1) will make 20 percent of that?"
The explanation for both is rather simple. Naomi Osaka is more popular than Swiatek which makes her more likely to create more revenue in her brand deals. It's the same for the ATP, it's more popular and brings more revenue to events which allows the events to pay back some of that revenue in prize money.
