It was a momentous milestone, brought about in no small part by an equally momentous champion, Billie Jean King. In 1973, the US Open became the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments to offer equal prize money to men and women competitors, a pioneering move that shook the sport and began to reshape it toward a more equitable future.
As we this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of this important US Open milestone, USOpen.org will feature a series of reflections upon other major markers of equality in tennis across this past half-century, each of which helped to nudge the sport forward toward the grand goal of a more level playing field for all. In this installment, we reflect on the long climb towards equality in prize money at the four Grand Slams.
In 1973, the US Open made the groundbreaking call to offer equal prize money to its men’s and women’s champions, making tennis history and marking a cultural touchstone in the battle for equality.
It was a striking change both in priority and payout. In 1972, men’s singles champion Ilie Năstase received $25,000 to just $10,000 for Billie Jean King, the women’s winner, making the shift to a $25,000 payout for both champions in 1973 a 150% increase in women’s prize money — and a five-fold boost from the $5,000 awarded to King for her 1971 women’s singles crown (compared to $15,000 for men’s champion Stan Smith that same year).
But the US Open’s decision—made amid lobbying from King and buoyed by what Tennis.com's Steve Tignor recently termed “a sizable cash supplement from the Ban Deodorant company”—was only the beginning of what proved to be a long and at times halting march toward progress—both throughout tennis and at the four Grand Slams.
“It was the height of the women’s movement,” King said 10 years ago, as quoted in The New York Times. “I think there was social pressure to start doing things different. … I really am thrilled, as a U.S. citizen, that we were the first.”
Still, there was no great haste to follow the Open’s lead. The Australian Open began offering equal prize money in 1984—11 years after the US Open — but reverted to paying the men more in 1996, citing higher ratings for men’s matches as its reason for doing so.
The Australian Open would reverse course in 2001, again offering equal prize money, with both the men’s and women’s champions that year earning $440,000 and meaning that, officially, half of the Slams now stood on the side of pay equity.
“This is great for women's tennis,” world No. 1 Martina Hingis told United Press International at the time. “We have all been working toward equal prize money for a while, and it is great that at the turn of the century, progress has been made. It is something we deserve, and I appreciate that the Australian Open has done this.”
It was another Grand Slam champion, Hingis’ rival Venus Williams, who helped the Slams take the next step. In 2005, just one day before she was set to face Lindsay Davenport in the Wimbledon final, Williams joined then-WTA chair Larry Scott for a Grand Slam Committee meeting to address adding a 15th day to the 2006 French Open and to make the pitch for equal prize money at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Williams’ appearance left an impression. Roland Garros responded by paying its men’s and women’s champions equally in 2006, and in 2007 began awarding equal prize money to men and women at each round of the draw. In making the latter announcement, French Tennis Federation president Christian Bîmes credited Williams as one of the decision’s driving forces.
“It has been our goal since 2005,” Bîmes told Eurosport of offering equal prize money. “Last year, a first step was taken with identical prize money for the singles champions. In 2007, prize money will be equally distributed throughout the entire draw. It is the right recognition of the place and quality of women’s tennis, as Venus Williams remarkably underlined in a speech to which I was particularly sensitive.”
Added Frenchwoman and then-world No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo, echoing King’s words from 34 years earlier: “I have always believed that sport should reflect our society. By adopting full equality in prize money, the French Open has even taken a step ahead of it. I am both very happy and very proud, as a Frenchwoman, that the French Open has taken this decision.”
The march to full equal prize money was completed just a few months later, when Wimbledon announced that it too would pay men and women a parallel sum at its 2007 event.
“The time is right to bring this subject to a logical conclusion and eliminate the difference,” said All England Club Chair Tim Phillips. “We believe our decision to offer equal prize money provides a boost for the game as a whole and recognizes the enormous contribution that women players make to the game and to Wimbledon.”
And with that, after a long and tumultuous effort spanning four decades, there was pay equity at grandest stages in tennis—a long climb that covered the majority of the Open Era and signified an important step in sporting equality.
