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The Internazionali BNL d’Italia takes place at the stylish Foro Italico in Rome. The tournament is one of the three ATP Masters 1000 events contested on clay and also hosts a WTA 1000 event during the same week.
When Italian Open organisers announced a commitment to distributing equal prize money between male and female tennis players by 2025, they were likely hoping to quell some of the recent disquiet surrounding the tournament’s well-documented pay disparity.
Last year, Iga Swiatek took home less than half of her ATP counterpart’s earnings after winning the Italian Open title. This year, while both prize pots have increased in size, so too has the pay gap between the men’s champion and the women’s.
The winner of the ATP side of the event is this year set to receive €1,105,265, while the winner of the women’s event will be awarded €521,754.
The prize money breakdown mirrors Madrid (which has also expanded to a 96-player singles draw), and the winner on the men’s side will take home €1,105,265, which is an increase of 32.15% compared to what Novak Djkokoic received last year when he won his sixth Italian Open title.
In response to the backlash, Italian tennis federation president Angelo Binaghi announced that things would be changing – in two years.
“For the first time in history we have started the process that over three years will lead to equal prize money between the women’s and the men’s tournaments,” Binaghi said.
Binaghi added that the reason for this increase was because of a female CEO of the Italian Open’s main sponsor (Banca Nazionale del Lavoro), making the necessary funds available – “We can make this big leap because the first female CEO of a big bank in Italy has provided us with the necessary resources.”
