Iga Swiatek: "Women's tennis conveys the same emotions"

• Tennis

Last week, there was a lot of talk about the disparity between the prize money of the WTA 500 tournament in Stuttgart and that of the ATP 500 event in Barcelona. The total prize pool of the Barcelona Open amounted to $2,722,480; while that of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix at $ 709,833.

The difference was also substantial in the prize money obtained by the winners: Carlos Alcaraz collected $477,795; Iga Swiatek $109,252. The WTA world number one was questioned at a press conference on the matter during Media Day in Madrid.

Swiatek: "Equal ATP/WTA prize money? We do the same job"

Iga explained: "You know my opinion on the subject. From this point of view I think tennis works better than many other sports. But there is still a long way to go in terms of prize money equality in some ATP and WTA events of the same level.

Slam tournaments have already taken this step, as we all know. It's very nice, but it would be important if the WTA focused on the subject. But I won't go into details, because we are talking about business and politics. I don't think I can influence anyone.

It would be nice for our sport to have equal prize money: we do the same job in the end. There are people who think men's tennis is nicer to watch because the players can do more physically. Many say that women's tennis should improve, but right now we are more consistent than men.

Watching women's tennis conveys the same emotions, sometimes even something more." Swiatek will be busy this week at the WTA 1000 in Madrid and will make her debut in the second round: "I want to win every tournament I enter.

Madrid is a difficult tournament, so I want to live this experience. Winning would mean playing six games at a high level. I'm only focused on my first match, I prefer to think match after match."