Naomi Osaka has hit back at suggestions that women players should justify receiving the same amount of prizemoney as their male counterparts by playing best-of-five set matches.
The Japanese star continued her fine form at the Miami Open, brushing aside Alison Riske in straight sets to set up a quarter-final clash against Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins.
Following her win over Riske, Osaka was asked about Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas‘ suggestion that women’s players could play best-of-five matches at grand slams, and pushed back at the men’s world No.5’s call.
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“Does he want to play nine sets? If he tries to extend mine, I’m going to extend his,” she said.
“I don’t know. I feel like that would change the structure of tennis. Like people will start doing things differently in the gym and stuff like that.
“It will probably also take a very long time to be implemented, but also, a man is talking about a women’s sport, so I don’t think his idea is going to go through.”
Women’s players currently receive the same amount of prizemoney as their men’s counterparts at each stage of grand slam tournaments, despite women’s matches only being best-of-three set encounters compared to the men’s best-of-five.
Rafael Nadal and Ash Barty, the singles champions in the men’s and women’s Australian Open draw, respectively, each received $2.88 million in prizemoney this year.
Osaka is of the belief that the revenue generated by the WTA justifies the equal pay women’s players receive at slams, despite playing in shorter matches.
“I don’t want to be rude. I’m really trying to structure this in a way that’s not like off-putting, but I think it’s like decades of hard work,” she said.
“Up until now, women have been putting in the work. It’s not just like, oh, it’s come out of nowhere that you get paid the same.
“The history of the WTA has been leading them into advocating for equal pay with Billie Jean King, Venus (Williams), Serena (Williams) all that.
“I also think ticket sales are important. I think the WTA has really good up-and-comers, the No.1 player in the world, Iga (Swiatek), is like 20 right? I don’t know. It’s who people find interesting. Coco (Gauff) is amazing as well.
“For me, I feel like the revenue that you generate, like ticket sales, is very important, and I think the WTA is doing a really good job at that.”
Osaka’s quarter-final clash against Collins, the world No.11, will take place at 10am on Wednesday.