The prize fund for tennis players at the tournament in Rome will be equalized until 2025.
When the Polish Iga Švjontek triumphed in the tournament last year, she received less than half of the money that the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic earned for his trophy.
Švjontek received 332.260 euros, and Djokovic 836,355.
"For the first time in history, we started the process to equalize the prize fund of the women's and men's tournaments within three years. We are talking about eight million euros for each tournament. We can make this big leap, because our first woman is the executive director of a large bank in Italy provided the necessary resources," said the president of the Italian Tennis Association, Angelo Binagi, at the presentation of the tournament, which will be held this year from May 10 to 21.
The legendary Billie Jean King often said that she wanted to start a special professional women's competition after she won $1970 for the title at the Italian Open in 600, while Ilje Nastase won $3.500 for winning the same tournament that year.
The tournament in Rome has improved its status in the ATP and WTA and instead of eight days it will last 12, with the participation of 96 players in the draw in the men's and women's competition, unlike the previous format with 56 players each.
"With the WTA's ongoing efforts to achieve equal prize pool across all tournaments, we are excited by the commitment made by the Rome tournament to have this in place until 2025. We hope to see such a commitment at more WTA tournaments," it said. WTA announcement.
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