28. TOURNAMENT INEQUALITY

So, this week, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) proudly announced on Twitter that that 533 women’s and 526 men’s tournaments were held on the ITF World Tennis Tour this year (up to December 18^th 2022) and that they are ‘driving equality in tennis’. Now, technically this might be true and the ITF may be doing their ‘bit’ in trying to balance out the opportunities for pro women and pro men to compete, but what they fail to mention is that the inequality between the sexes and the number of pro tennis tournament opportunities on offer over all is massive, as shown by the fact that the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) staged only 79 tournaments this year, whilst the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) staged 255 for the men. That is a huge difference!

Now one might argue, although I am not sure of the exact facts on this, that more men play tennis and hence more tournaments are needed?  But one could also argue that more women might compete if more tournaments were on offer. Why is there such a big difference in the number of competitions between the men and women players? Why are the women not given the same number of opportunities to compete and earn points and prize money? Fewer tournaments mean the competition for entries is tougher but surely if we are trying to encourage players into the game then there should at least be the same number of events for both men and women?

Why also, does the ITF only put on M15 and M25 events for the men and the rest are organised by the ATP, whereas with the women, the ITF is responsible not only for the W15 and W25 events, but also the W60s, W80s and W100s. Can we not get some kind of standardisation across the tennis governing bodies? Is it all down to funding? If so, why is there less money available to stage events for the female players?

The biggest difference between the tournament opportunities for the men and women, lies in the mid-range events, or the ‘Challengers’ as they are known on the men’s tour. On the men’s tour there were 184 Challenger events this year (2022). By comparison, there were only 120 similar level events on the women’s tour. Why? These events offer good prize money and great opportunities for valuable ranking points. Above Challenger level, the number of tournaments even out more, although the men have more $250k level events and also get three extra high value events, in the form of the Next Gen ATP Finals (for players under 21 years), and the ATP and Laver Cups (team events). Surely it is time for the governing bodies of tennis to come together to equalise out these differences and work together to ensure that what is offered to one is offered to the other? 

Pro Tennis Tournaments in 2022*

Women

ITF W15s – 232

ITF W25s – 209

ITF 60s – 75

ITF 80s – 7

ITF W100s14

WTA 125s – 24

WTA 250s – 30

WTA 500s – 12

WTA 1000s – 8

Grand Slams – 4

WTA Finals – 1

Total Number of Women’s Pro Level Tournaments in 2022 = 616

Men

ITF M15s – 320

ITF M25s – 206

ATP Challengers – 184

ATP 250s – 42

ATP 500s – 13

ATP 1000s – 8

Grand Slams – 4

ATP Finals – 1

ATP Cup – 1 (Team event)

Laver Cup – 1 (Team event)

Next Gen ATP Cup – 1 (under 21s)

Total Number of Men’s Pro Level Tournaments in 2022 = 781

*Total tournaments taken from ITF/WTA/ATP calendars for 2022 – excluding cancelled events

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