Current WTA Roster 'Spoiled' Crying Foul Of Prize Money Disparity According To Hantuchova

| by Nurein Ahmed

Retired WTA star Daniela Hantuchova is not in agreement with claims from the current women's roster raising concerns about the prize money disparity to their male counterparts.

Hantuchova was ranked as high as World No. 5 during her peak years. Having turned professional in 1999, the Slovak went on to amass seven singles titles on tour, but the bulk of her success came in doubles, in which she also achieved a career-high mark of No. 5.

In an interview on the Livesport Daily podcast, Hantuchova is aware that low earnings are "difficult" and has slammed current WTA players for being "spoiled" and instead, should be grateful to tennis tournaments for offering prize money, without making a fuss about parity status with the men.

Only at the four Grand Slam tournaments and select ATP and WTA 1000 tournaments is the prize money the same across both tours. However, there is a massive gap in pay between men and women at many tournaments of the same level, which is obviously attributed to the fact that ATP and WTA exist as separate entities with different hierarchies and leadership teams.

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"It feels a bit like spoiling. Especially on the women's circuit, where the prize money is what it is, and the girls certainly don't work from (four in the morning) in a mine somewhere. It's difficult, but we never allowed ourselves to criticize because we knew that the checks we were getting were thanks to the tournament."

Hantuchova is part of an exclusive club of tennis players who won the Career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. Having retired from professional tennis in 2017, the 40-year-old has pursued a career as a tennis commentator.

She concurred with complaints about the demanding tournament schedule and timetable that is brutal for tennis players and singled out frequent travel as one of the key reasons why she was forced to hang up her racket in the first place.

"Regarding travel and the destinations in which WTA tournaments are played, on the contrary, I agree with the players. From this point of view, tennis is the most demanding sport that exists. For me personally, it was one of the reasons I quit."

"The body could no longer handle the time differences, I kept waking up out of the normal rhythm, it was unhealthy. I told myself that it wasn't even worth the money, that I'd rather be well at 60. It was over the edge."

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