SUMMARY
- Daria Kasatkina spoke her mind on the pay discrimination between men and women's tennis.
- She spoke of how many players have barely enough to survive.
Pay disparity between men and women has plagued working professionals all over the world. This discrimination exists in sports as well. A lot has been said about the gender pay gap, and while there has been some progress, it has come at a snail’s pace. Now, Russian star Daria Kasatkina has chimed in with her opinion on this issue.
The subject of equal pay has been a hot topic for years now. Several notable players have spoken for or against why there should be parity between men and women in tennis. Kasatkina feels very strongly about this topic. According to the Russian, comparisons don’t make sense, and women deserve to be paid more than they currently are.
The Grand Slams and the ATP/WTA 1000 tournaments offer equal prize money to men and women. However, the scenario is very different for other events. Daria appeared on the latest episode of the ‘What’s on Tour?’ podcast and gave her honest opinion.
“What do I think about the size of the prize money for boys and girls? This is an age-old topic. We don’t live in harmony; someone always wants better, less, more,” she said (translated from Russian via Championat).
Kasatkina has always been one of the more outspoken players. She lambasted the WTA for letting its players fight for equal pay when they can pay more. Kasatkina further added that paying women more would not mean that men would be paid less. Moreover, after taxes and expenses, players barely have enough to survive.
Daria Kasatkina did not just put the WTA on blast for not paying its players. The Russian player launched into a tirade for their lack of effort.
Daria Kasatkina slams the WTA
Of late, the WTA has come under fire for not doing enough to promote women’s tennis. Kasatkina is the latest player to join others to call out the governing body.
Daria spoke on a variety of subjects on the podcast when the topic of WTA management came up. The host, Angie, asked Daria if there were any changes she wanted to see. Kasatkina added that she would not separate the women’s tour from Tennis TV.
She added earlier that the sport had one platform to promote both men’s and women’s tennis. Now the WTA social media accounts do a horrendous job when it comes to promotion.
Daria Kasatkina says WTA TV is one of the worst platforms & WTA doesn’t intentionally promote women’s tennis:
“I wouldn’t separate WTA from TennisTV. It used to be one thing. Now WTA TV is one of the worst platforms, you can’t even find it on a web search. TennisTV is the… pic.twitter.com/Lpa3egX8Ij
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) December 26, 2023
Daria Kasatkina has always been very vocal about the problems that she and her peers have to endure. The world number 18 will be heading to Australia soon to prepare for the Australian Open.