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Sharapova promoting her candy line - Sugarpova.
Photo from NYDailynews.The Australian Open recently announced that it would increase the prize money available to players by $4 million.  The 2013 prize money total now moves up to $30 million, "making it the richest event in tennis." Tournament organizers have not yet worked out how that extra $4 million will be allocated, but the intent is to spend the majority on the early rounds in an attempt to "counter concerns that lower ranked players were struggling to sustain careers on the ATP and WTA Tours." It is a move that Roger Federer supports but Maria Sharapova spoke out against this idea saying that she does not necessarily agree with giving more money to people who lose early in a tournament.  However, she has stated that she believes very strongly in women receiving equal prize money to the men.

Last year, around this time, I wrote a post about the illusion of equal prize money arguing that as great an accomplishment as equal prize money is between men and women at the Grand Slams we must question which women benefit from this achievement.  Fact of the matter is it is far harder to be a journey-woman on the WTA Tour than it is for a journeyman on the ATP Tour because the "minimum wages" for men is considerably higher than it is for women.  There is simply more money to go around on the men's tour; therefore, it happens to trickle down to the bottom. On the WTA it is the women at the top who reap the greatest benefits of equal prize money, Sharapova being one of those.  Sharapova's comment that the further a player advances into a tournament the more they deserve is based on the idea that sport is a meritocracy - the better you are the more you deserve and the more you will get. That would be fine if people didn't have to pay in order to compete.

Being a professional tennis player costs a lot of money.  Unlike a team sport if you, well, suck you don't have a contract that guarantees you any set amount of money.  You have to earn your money week in and week out.  So if you lose first round at the US Open and take home a cheque for say $18,000 that may seem like a lot of money but when you spend it on travel, hotel, coaching, equipment, food, taxes and rent your pay cheque gets smaller quickly. Also, keep in mind that not every tournament is a Grand Slam. What you earn losing first round at a Grand Slam could be equivalent to many weeks (and maybe months) on the tour playing Tier 1 and 2 tournaments.  Top players travel with whole entourages to ensure their success, from coaches and trainers to agents and significant others.  Bottom feeders are lucky if they can afford to have a coach travel with them.  Money won't make you better than you are, but money does give you the opportunity to compete and the opportunity to improve.  Maybe Miss. Sharapova has forgotten that a free scholarship to Bollettieri Academy (worth $46,000 annually) is what started her illustrious career. A scholarship earned on merit but her parents had to borrow money in order to pay for the flight from Siberia to Florida.  Maybe, just maybe, she has forgotten that her parents could not afford to buy her a child-size racquet as a kid and they had to cut down an adult racquet for her.

Now, in no way am I arguing that players who lose first round should make as much as someone who loses in the quarterfinals, but Sharapova's statement seems completely ignorant of someone who lives in the real world. The real world where things keep getting more expensive.  Perhaps, to the most marketable woman in sports increases in the cost of rent and gas seem irrelevant, but make no mistake those who lose first round have a better idea of what things cost to compete.  Keep in mind that better players will also have better (and more) endorsement deals *ahem - Sharapova*. The top players are making more than enough to sustain their careers and a lavish lifestyle so unless Sharapova only wants to play the same 9 women every week she might want to have a chat with Kimiko Date-Krumm, the 100th ranked player, and find out why it would be relevant to raise the prize money for early round exits. Something tells me that Sharapova is probably in favour of the Romney/Ryan tax plan.

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