I have to be honest I was not very interested in watching any of the tennis matches. My mother called me to let me know that the game was on. I was working on my website. My mother called again half way through the game, so I decided to watch the rest of the match. I do not know much about tennis. I was a basketball player in my youth and my family is a huge Dallas Cowboy fan. Coco wins the match and she received a check and a trophy. Nothing unusual about that. What I did not realize at the time was the other players at the US Open got paid as well. So, it lead me to do some research. Billie Jean King was the driving force for achieving equal pay for men and women at major tennis tournaments. In 1972, King won the single match and she earned $15,000 less then her male counterpart that won the title that year. She threatened not to compete in the next year's tournament if the men's and women's singles champions did not receive same paychecks for their respective wins. King was successful in her fight for equal pay the following season. The US Open became the first major tournament to award equal prize money. My next question is why is it difficult for other major sports to follow suite? For example, USA Men and Women Soccer or the NBA vs WNBA? Let me know your thoughts. Back to tennis.
How much did the other players get paid?
The 2023 US Open prize money was a total of $65M split among all the players. Coco received $3M as the winner. Aryna Sabalenka received $1.5M. Below is the list of payouts for the singles and doubles at the US Opens.
Singles
Semifinalists: $775,000
Quarterfinalists: $455,000
Round of 16: $284,000
Round of 32: $191,000
Round of 64: $123,000
Round of 128: $81,500
Doubles
Champions: $700,000
Runners-Up: $350,000
Semifinalists: $180,000
Quarterfinalists: $100,000
Round of 16: $58,000
Round of 32: $36,800
Round of 64: $22,000
Congratulations to all the tennis players at the US Open.
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