British world No.7 Johanna Konta believes female players on the tour needs to be given more credit for their performances on the court.
Earlier this year Konta made headlines at the Wimbledon championships for her match against Simona Halep, which was a ratings hit for the BBC. A total of 7.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the match, making it the most watch women’s Wimbledon match on the BBC (according to records).
“When people commented on my match being the most-watched match of the Championships, they put it very much in a female context,” Konta told Reuters. “I thought ‘Well, why does it need to be in a female context? It’s a tennis match. Part of an event.”
Whilst being proud of her achievement, the 26-year-old is eager to point out that there has been other ‘kick arse’ matches this season. Earlier this week Petra Kvitova went out to China’s Peng Shuai in three tiebreakers during what was the longest women’s match on the tour so far this year. The encounter lasted for a total of three hours and 34 minutes.
”More credit needs to be given. There is so much talk that the women’s draw is so open. But it’s open in the sense of there are so many amazing players. We have the depth.” said Konta.
There remains a gap between the men’s and women’s tour. Despite there being equal prize money in all four grand slams, Reuters news has reported that the prize money poll of the 2017 ATP Tour is over $60 million more than the WTA Tour ($197.7M to $139M). In the Forbes list of the 100 highest paid athletes, six of those are tennis players. Out of those six, Serena Williams is the only female representative.
A divide between the two genders remain, but Konta believes that players should be recognized for their own achievements and not their sex.
“It’s important to acknowledge the great qualities of both men and women in sport and not segregate them, because you will find very similar qualities in Serena Williams and Roger Federer,” she explained.
“I think that’s what makes sport very beautiful: it isn’t gender-biased technically, everyone is out there doing the work and trying to be the best they can be.”
With the absence of Williams due to the birth of her first child, women’s tennis has seen constant changes. Each of the major tournaments have been won by a different player for the first time since 2014. Meanwhile, four different players has held the No.1 position so far this season with Garbine Muguruza currently in top spot.
