Tennis: Why the prize money differs for men and women at the ASB Classic

Caroline Wozniacki at the 2018 ASB Classic. Photo / Nick Reed

Questions have again been raised over the apparent prize money disparity between the men's and women's events at the ASB Classic, though the answer is not as straightforward as it seems.

The winner of tomorrow's ASB Classic women's final — between Caroline Wozniacki and Julia Goerges — will bank US$43,000 (NZ$59,99), while the runner up with take home US$21,400 ($29,857)

It's a tidy sum but dwarfed by the figures at the men's event, the main draw of which starts tomorrow.

The men's champion will receive US$89,435 (NZ$124,778), with the other finalist trousering US$47,105 ($65,720).

The difference is even more pronounced this year, as the overall men's prizemoney has been boosted by US$92,000 ($128,369) since last year — an increase of almost 20 per cent from US$470,000 ($655,661) to $US562,000 ($784,004) — while the women's total payout has stayed the same at US$250,000 ($348,829).

It might seem unbalanced, especially as the women and men both come through a 32 player field, and each tournament is the best of three sets.

But the difference comes about because the tournaments are essentially two separate events, that just share the same sponsor and venue.

The prize money for an International level women's tournament is set by the WTA and the ATP decide the same for an ATP 250 event, which the Classic is.

Broadly speaking, each tennis tour pays what it can afford, as a dividend of broadcasting, sponsorship, merchandise and ticketing money.

For a variety of reasons, the ATP tour currently generates more revenue than the WTA tour at the moment, mainly due to higher levels of broadcasting income, though the WTA tour also has greater overheads, as they provide more in the way of services to their players.

And prizemoney is only one piece of the pie. Top seed Caroline Wozniacki would have received a significant sum for coming to Auckland, while Serena Williams was paid almost $200,000 — understood to be the most in the tournament's history in terms of appearance fees — for her visit last year.

Sometimes, also, the disparity goes the other way. Over the past week a combined WTA/ATP event has been staged in Brisbane, where the women receive significantly higher levels of prizemoney due to the relevant categories.

The female winner of the Brisbane International will bank US$190,732 ($266,115) out of a pool of US$1 million ($1.395 million). That dwarfs the men's prize money, where US$83,650 ($116,711) goes to the champion out of total proceeds of US$528,910 ($737,952).