2023-06-27 21:29:56
By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted yesterday at 9:29 PM, Updated yesterday at 9:29 PM
Elena Rybakina won in Rome this year. Antonietta Baldassarre / Inside photo / Inside / Panoramic
The WTA on Tuesday announced plans to reshape its calendar to include shared events with the ATP, which will eventually lead to prize pool parity between women and men within the next 10 years. The plan calls for top female players to regularly compete in premier competitions at the WTA 1000 and WTA 500 level, which would then be combined with men’s events at the same level. These competitions would receive equal prize money by 2027 while non-combined week-long events will achieve parity by 2033.
The WTA intends to increase the number of 1000 level tournaments to 10, several of which will extend over two weeks with a larger field, as is already the case in Miami and Indian Wells. With this in mind, Rome has taken the plunge this year, Madrid and Beijing will do so in 2024, Cincinnati and Montreal in 2025 to reach the same price level in 2027.
Other WTA 1000 events would be week-long tournaments in Doha and Dubai in February and at a venue to be determined in October, with equal prize pools ten years from now. The number of 500-level events will increase to 17 with stops in Tokyo, Brisbane, Charleston, San Diego, Washington, Seoul, Berlin, Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, Eastbourne, Monterrey, Strasbourg, Zhengzhou and Stuttgart, as well as the United Cup and two events at unannounced locations.
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