Whenever Venus Williams decides to end a professional tennis career that has already lasted nearly three decades, her greatest legacy at Wimbledon will not be her 11 titles .Nor will it be her astonishing longevity that has taken in a debut in 1997 and included, as it stands, 24 appearances at the tournament — despite battling numerous injuries and the auto-immune disorder Sjogren’s syndrome.
Williams and Roger Federer after winning Wimbledon titles in 2005, at which point Federer earned more for his victory But while Williams’ legacy will always live on, the sad reality is that even 16 years on from Wimbledon awarding equal prize money for the first time , equality across the whole of tennis remains a long way off. There are numerous tournaments where women still aren’t paid equally, and in June 2022 the Financial Times reported that the total prize money awarded on the men’s tour for the year so far was 75 per cent higher than the women’s — “the widest the gap has been since 2001”.
And there is another element to all of this: the spectre of professional tennis going to Saudi Arabia, something that appears increasingly inevitable. King, a legendary pioneer for equality, said on Friday at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the WTA that: “I’m a huge believer in engagement — I don’t think you change unless you engage. I would probably go there and talk to them.”
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