Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Caroline Wozniacki, and rest of tennis world send messages on International Women's Day
Several tennis players, past and present, shared their thoughts on International Women's Day.
Wednesday (March 8) marked the International Women's Day and many people across the world took to social media to talk about the occasion. Several tennis figures also did the same, with King being one of them. She shared an image of her embracing herself, with the caption reading:
"Equal opportunities are no longer enough. #EmbraceEquity #InternationalWomensDay #IWD2023."
Navratilova took to Twitter to wish all women on the occasion of International Women's Day.
"Happy International Women’s Day to all women peeps here:)," the former World No. 1 tweeted.
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Happy International Women’s Day to all women peeps here:)🥂💥💪🏼💪🏾🚺🚺🚺
Former World No. 1 Wozniacki shared an image of herself with her daughter Olivia on Instagram, and captioned her post:
"Here's to strong women, may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them, Happy International Women's Day!"
Alija Tomljanovic shared a video of herself practicing with her mother and paid tribute to her.
"My mom led by example in teaching my sister and I to be strong, independent and to never settle for anything less than what we deserved, all while being kind, compassionate and loving. The luckiest to have these ladies in my life and in my group chat. Sending all my love to all the women around the world," the Aussie's caption read.
Bianca Andreescu shared a few videos of herself with her mother and grandmothers to celebrate International Women's Day.
Elina Svitolina shared pictures of herself with her daughter, her mother, and her grandmother.
"It's so unfair, it doesn't make sense at all" - Denis Shapovalov talks about gender pay gap in tennis
Denis Shapovalov gave his thoughts about the gender pay gap in tennis in his The Players' Tribune column. The Canadian wrote that the gender pay gap in tennis was very unfair as the prize money meant 'survival' for some players.
"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," Shapovalov wrote.
"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," he added.
The Canadian also slammed the narrative that female tennis players don't sell as many tickets as their male counterparts by claiming that he found the stadiums full while attending matches.
"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. 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," he stated.
"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," he added.
The 23-year-old also said that while things were going in the right direction when it came to equality in tennis, there is still a huge gap overall.
"I know that tennis is by far the best major sport in the world for women in terms of the way these prizes are shared. It has grown so much over the last 30 years thanks to Billie Jean King and the formation of the WTA Players’ Council," Shapovalov wrote.
"The Slams are doing well. It’s also great that the WTA has made free hospitality mandatory and increased prize money at the Challenger tournaments. Things are definitely going in the right direction. But overall the gap is still huge," he added.
Denis Shapovalov is currently competing at the Indian Wells Masters, where he is seeded 25th, thus receiving a bye to the second round, where he will face Ugo Humbert.