No sport has created more wealth for women in sports than tennis.
Let’s look at one match earlier this week at the Madrid Open, a lead up to Roland Garros in Paris.
Aryna Sabalenka vs. Naomi Osaka.
No. 1 Sabalenka has earned $3,850,897 on the court this year alone, $49,026,518 during her nine-year career, and even more in endorsements. Across the court, No. 15 Osaka has $25,103,386 career earnings, and she is one of the top athletes when it comes to branding. Last year Forbes estimated her net worth to be $45 Million.
Add that all up and pretty soon we’re talking real money.
It was a close match, but Sabalenka won.
When we talk about player paychecks in women’s sports, tennis can get left out of the equation. The sport has a decades-long head start over other major leagues. In 1970 when Billie Jean King and eight fellow players signed a $1 contract, leading to the WTA’s founding three years later.
It was an act of rebellion, a protest against the tournaments that paid women a fraction of what the men made to play.
And it has paid off. All four Grand Slams have paid the winners of the men’s and women’s tournaments equally since 2008. The architecture of those tournaments has benefited the women. Often a fan buys a ticket to a day of matches, and those are men’s and women’s. Media, sponsors, fans are all tuned into the best matches, period.
Over decades, this means a player like Osaka can be a millionaire many times over.
Women’s tennis is at an inflection point. The WTA’s CEO, Portia Archer, stepped down this week after a fairly short tenure. The organization is more exposed to international conflict than most others, and the rumors of Saudi money pulling back from sports like LIV Golf could impact the WTA more than most.
But this is the problem mature leagues have; managing the next stage of growth and protecting paychecks for players who are independent contractors. The league is built differently based on scale and scope, but it has generational fans, events and contracts as a foundation.
Despite challenges, it remains proof of an athlete-centric concept finally being realized across the landscape of women’s sports.
When we see the WNBA players making multiples of their old salaries this year under a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the league, that’s great. But it’s not even close to what the stars could be making.
The adjacent model isn’t the NBA or NFL. It’s women’s tennis, and it’s been right in front of us all along.
