Per editor: Dong Xingsheng
The 2021 U.S. Open (hereinafter referred to as the "U.S. Open") has been on several Weibo hot searches in two weeks. In addition to the Chinese female tennis player Zhang Shuai who passed the doubles field and won her second Grand Slam women's doubles title, the 18-year-old Emma Raducanu from the United Kingdom made it all the way from the qualifiers to the final and finally won the women's singles title, setting a record for the first time in the Open era that a qualifier won a Grand Slam. In the latest week's world ranking system, its ranking rose to No.23, and the total career prize money exceeded $2.8 million.
Emma Raducannu Image source: WTA official Weibo
In the tennis world, the four Grand Slam tournaments known as the Australian Open, the French Open, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the United States Open Tennis Championships are the highest level of tennis and symbolize the highest honor of the sport.
Winning a Grand Slam title is the ultimate goal of all professional tennis players. When you really lift the championship trophy, in addition to being able to engrave your name on the trophy with the legendary stars, the supreme glory of your career will also mean generous event prize money and brand sponsorship.
<h2>The US Open wins the world ranking from No.150 to No.23</h2>
For any professional tennis player, if you want to be remembered by the audience in this sport, the Grand Slam is the best stage. In the case of the US Open, for example, the USTA Billy Jane King National Tennis Center in Flushing Park, New York, is the venue for the annual US Open, and the Centre Court, Arthur Ashe, can accommodate 23,771 spectators at the same time.
Image source: Video screenshot
But not all players have the opportunity to enter center court to show their skills. Raducannu's first three rounds were arranged in the field court until she reached the round of 16 before being relegated to arthur Ashe Stadium.
Before coming to New York, Raducano was No.150 in the world, and two weeks later, she was no.23 in the world. At the same time, she also took with her $2.5 million (about 16.13 million yuan) championship check, before which her career total prize money was $261,000.
Raducano's bonuses this season and career Image source: WTA official website
The Grand Slam is the most lucrative tournament on the tennis tour, and many players who make a living from the prize money are one of the goals to be able to qualify for the Grand Slam main tournament. Raducannu's highest-level title before winning the US Open was the ITF25K Pune in India, with a prize money of $3,935. Taking this US Open as an example, even if you lose in the first round of the main tournament, you can still get a prize of 76,000 US dollars (about 490,000 yuan).
For the superstar players who have excelled in Grand Slam tournaments for many years, the number of career bonuses is also staggering. In the case of men's singles world number one Novak Djokovic, as of now, he has won a total of 4 titles in the 2021 season, including 3 Grand Slam titles, and a total of about 7.45 million US dollars in prize money. Throughout his career, he has won 85 championship titles, including 20 Grand Slams, and the total career prize money has exceeded 153 million US dollars (about 987 million yuan), which does not include his endorsements and business income.
<h2>There is a large pay gap between men and women in many sports</h2>
The tennis film "Battle of the Sexes", released in 2017, tells the story of how the legendary female star Billy Jane King single-handedly kicked off the prelude to equal pay for equal work for male and female athletes in tennis.
In 1973, the U.S. Open took the lead in achieving equal pay for men and women for equal work, followed by the other three major slams, and tennis became the first sport in the sports world to implement equal pay for men and women. Prior to this, the total prize money for men's tennis tournaments tended to be more than double that of women.
The 2021 Global Athlete Income List released by Forbes can also provide a glimpse of the male and female income gap in competitive sports. According to the list, only two female athletes in the 2021 global top 50 are Naomi Osaka at no. 12 and Serena Williams at No. 28, both of whom are tennis players.
Forbes 2021 Global Athlete Revenue List Image source: Forbes official website
Chinese female footballer Wang Shuang joined the women's football team of Paris Saint-Germain in 2018 with an annual salary of about 500,000 yuan, while at the same time, the annual salary of Chinese male football player Wu Lei in China has exceeded 10 million.
Football is highly professionalized, and there are differences in the attention of men's and women's competitions, but in some sports where men's and women's competitions are relatively less professional, there are also significant differences in the salaries of men and women. For example, the winner of the top men's curling event in Canada is $70,000, while the championship prize of the women's top event is $32,000.
The high level of women's competition is actually no less exciting than the men's competition. In tennis, for example, matches like tennis superstar Sharapova and Serena Williams are popular with many first-tier men's matches. China's women's tennis star Li Na's matches have also been a ratings guarantee, and according to CCTV statistics, Li Na's 2011 French Open women's singles final attracted about 120 million Chinese TV viewers.
Sporting events need to be professionalized in order to have stronger vitality and influence, while highly professional sports need to break the unequal barrier between male and female athletes and create a more open competitive environment, allowing athletes to conquer audiences and sponsors with their own strength and charm.
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