On the same weekend Rafael Nadal won a record 11th French Open title, the world’s No. 1 men’s tennis player made headlines, telling an Italian magazine that the question of whether women’s players should be paid equally is “a comparison we shouldn’t even make” because of the viewership disparity.

Nadal’s argument invoked the discrepancy in pay between male and female models:

Q: “In tennis, should women earn as much as men?” Nadal: “It’s a comparison we shouldn’t even make. Female models earn more than male models and nobody says anything. Why? Because they have a larger following. In tennis too, who gathers a larger audience earns more”. pic.twitter.com/rNqq0faoA3 — naturelle (@naturelle13) June 9, 2018





“It’s a comparison we shouldn’t even make. Female models earn more than male models and nobody says anything. Why? Because they have a larger following. In tennis too, who gathers a larger audience earns more.”

Do men’s tennis players outdraw the women?

Television ratings for the French Open finals have yet to be published, but the men’s final at the Australian Open in January between Roger Federer and Marin Cilic drew almost 25 percent more viewers than the women’s final between Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep. Both aired on ESPN.

This has not always been the case at Grand Slam events, where the Williams sisters and other stars have often been the bigger draw in recent years. At the U.S. Open, for example, the women’s final drew more television viewers than the men every year from 2010-14, according to Sports Media Watch.

On average, though, the men’s ATP World Tour events have generated significantly larger audiences and more revenue than the women’s WTA Tour. According to statistics compiled by BBC, the ATP drew 973 million viewers in 2015 compared to the WTA’s 395 million, both excluding Grand Slam events.

How do the ATP and WTA tours operate?

The two entities are separate businesses, and last year the WTA left the Tennis Channel for a deal with beIN Sports. Additionally, the WTA ended an online streaming partnership with the ATP to create its own service in hopes of generating revenue independently. Prize money is reportedly determined by each tournament’s sponsorship deals, TV rights packages, ticket sales and on-site concession sales.

All four Grand Slam competitions — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open — have paid men and women equally since 2007. (The U.S. Open was the first to do so in 1973, and Wimbledon was the last more than a decade ago.) A handful of other high-profile events follow suit.

The same cannot be said about the prize packages at dozens of other tournaments worldwide every year. The ATP World Tour scheduled 68 tournaments this year, while the WTA Tour will feature 58.

According to a FiveThirtyEight.com study on tennis income inequality in 2014, “only 336 men and 253 women made more than they spent playing tennis” in 2013. “The ITF estimates that the 4,978 men who won some prize money last year but weren’t in the top 1 percent earned, on average, a little over $13,000. The bottom 99 percent of the 2,650 women who earned prize money averaged about $22,600.”

Rafael Nadal won his record 11th French Open title over the weekend. (AP) More

Novak Djokovic made similar comments in 2015

Nadal isn’t the first high-profile men’s player to argue that viewership should determine prize deals. In 2015, after Indian Wells tournament director Raymond Moore said, “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born because they have carried this sport” — comments that led to his resignation — former men’s world No. 1 player Novak Djokovic called those remarks “not politically correct,” added of equal pay for women:

“I applaud them for that, I honestly do. They fought for what they deserve and they got it. On the other hand I think that our men’s tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches. I think that’s one of the reasons why maybe we should get awarded more. Women should fight for what they think they deserve and we should fight for what we think we deserve.”

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