Novak Djokovic given '10 EUROS' more than Simona Halep for winning Rome Masters 2020 title

Equal pay has always been a topic of great contention in tennis and more broadly, in sport itself. Tennis, after much upheaval and hand wringing, is one of the smaller offenders in this regard. But the Rome Masters 2020 prize money difference is just one  example of how averse organizers are to the idea of equal pay; even in 2020. The tournament has long been one with the largest pay gap between men and women, specially at the lower levels. 

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Rome Masters 2020 prize money controversy

Men's World No.1 Novak Djokovic and Women's World No.2 Simona Halep won their respective singles finals at the Rome Masters on Monday. Last year's Women's singles winner Karolina Pliskova took home $850,000. It was peanuts as compared to the $1.56 million that men's champion Rafael Nadal took home.

Going by these differences, one could expect that under normal circumstances, this year's men's champion Novak Djokovic would've taken home a significantly larger amount of money than his counterpart on the women's side.

However, due to the financial strains that have come about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rome Masters prize money was slashed significantly. And the organizers came SO close to correcting their massive pay gap. According to their revised pay scale, this year's female champion, Simona Halep was paid 205,190 euros ($240,974.73) while Novak Djokovic was paid 205,200 euros ($240,986.47). As a result, Djokovic shockingly received just 10 euros ($11.74) more. This symbolic carrying-forward of the traditional lesser pay for women has not been been overlooked by audiences. 

New York Times journalist and Senior Editor of Racquet, Ben Rothenberg has also expressed his dismay at the Rome Masters prize money controversy. Posting an image of the difference in the champion's purses, he has pointed out not just the bigger issue of women earning less than HALF of what men earn in the initial rounds, but also the special effort made by the Rome Maasters 2020 organizers to create this odd difference at the top.

The common defences of awarding men higher amounts in tennis have been more due to viewership and the fact that they play longer matches. However, in the ATP circuit, where all matches are played in the best of three-sets format and in the era of COVID-19 where there were no earnings from ticket sales, this petty shortchanging is even more inexcusable than usual. It took a worldwide pandemic for the Rome Masters 2020 to scale down pay to an almost equitable level, but even COVID-19 couldn't get women just quite the same amount of prize money. 

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Women who have fought and spoke up for equal pay in tennis

The US Ope was the first to offer equal prize money to women in 1973 after the thenn champion Billie Jean King threatened to pull out of the event, which could have meant a huge loss in ticket sales and TV viewership alike. Wimbledon, definitely the most 'traditional' of the Slams, only embraced this idea in 2007, after Venus Williams allegedly asked the organizers to take a deep look at how they were treating their female players. As of now, all Grand Slams offer equal pay at all levels. However, the other events are yet to catch up. 

A good case in point to really show the huge difference in the amounts tennis stars make, is Serena Williaas. Williams has won $93,542,122 fom her 72 singles titles. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic, who has long been a proponent of more pay for men, has earned $144,159,599 from his 81 titles. A difference of over 50 million, even with Serena Williams' star power, is a clear indication that there is very little hope for women still trying to make it. 

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Image Credits: Internazionale BNL Twitter