A high number of Top 20 players on the women's tour have tabled a formal proposal to the WTA - the principal governing body of women's tennis - with a list of demands.
That is the word of sports journalist Jon Wertheim who put a tweet on X, without naming the identity of the players but disclosing that none of the American players and World No. 2 Iga Swiatek were involved in formulating this yet-to-be-seen document.
Wertheim captures an excerpt of the letter in his tweet, which reads, 'Tour is becoming incredibly demanding on us, creating physical and mental stresses not sustainable in the long run.'
Among the list of demands, the players are requesting a guaranteed minimum pay where the top 100 players will be paid $500,000. Those between 101 and 175 earn $200,000 and lastly, the 176 and 250 bands receive $100,000.
This move certainly draws parallels to the ATP's initiative from two months ago when it announced a transformative financial security programme to cushion the world's Top 250 players with a minimum wage pay meant to cover any shortfalls should their prize money fall below the set thresholds.
At this point, the WTA has not commented on the subject, nor has there been any verified discussion behind the scenes about coming up with something similar to the Baseline Programme that the ATP is set to trial for the upcoming season.
But this is a very fascinating approach by the WTA players in their bid to bridge the gap in yearly earnings with their male counterparts. Aside from the majority of tennis tournaments having a massive disparity in prize money between men and women, WTA players make a lot less in yearly earnings compared to men.
At the moment, only the four Grand Slams and a select ATP/WTA 1000 events offer equal prize money to men and women, with plans currently in place to achieve equal prize money at WTA 1000 and 500 combined events by 2027.
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