Ukrainian tennis player hits out at the sport's gender pay gap, asking, 'Are we really that bad?'

• The Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk has hit out at the sport's gender pay gap.
• A study last year found that female tennis players earn on average 34% less than male players.

The Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk has hit out at the sport's gender pay gap.

A study last year found that elite female tennis players earn on average 34% less than their male counterparts.

On Thursday, the 19-year-old Kostyuk highlighted that gap on Twitter by sharing screenshots of the prize money from two Tour 500 level tournaments – one men's and one women's.

The figures show that the prize money for winning this year's ATP Halle 500, a men's tournament, is $418,000, while the prize money for winning last year's WTA Berlin 500, a women's tournament, was just $58,000 – an 87% difference.

"Are we really that bad?" wrote Kostyuk alongside the images.

—Marta Kostyuk (@marta_kostyuk) June 16, 2022

Tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg was quick to point out that the prize money for this year's Berlin 500 had risen to $98,000 – cutting the gap between the two tournaments to 77%.

But he added that Kostyuk was right to point out the difference and that the pay gap between men's and women's tournaments is still "growing considerably."

—Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 16, 2022

At last month's Italian Open in Rome, an Masters 1000 tournament that has both a male and female draw, British reporter Catherine Whitaker highlighted a similar issue.

She pointed out that women who reached the same stage as men in their respective tournaments would earn significantly less, most notably the winners.

The winner of the men's tournament, Novak Djokovic, took home $877,000 while the winner of the women's tournament, Iga Swiatek, won only $338,000.

"Rome prize money next week," she said. "Same points, same status, same stage. The only thing that would make this bearable is if Taylor Swift wrote a song about it."

—Catherine Whitaker (@CWhitakerSport) May 8, 2022

While there remains a pay gap between ATP and WTA tournaments of the same level, tennis' four Grand Slams pay men and women equal prize money.

Pay at the Slams was unequal until Billie Jean King formed the Women's Tennis Association in 1973 and successfully demanded the US Open pay its male and female players the same.

The Australian Open did the same in 1984 (though it did revert its decision between 1996 and 2000), while the French Open and Wimbledon followed suit in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Combined Masters events, such as Indian Wells and the Miami Open, also pay the same to men and women.

Earlier this year, tennis superstar Serena Williams told CBS News that she believed the sports world was making positive steps towards equality in gender pay, but that such things "take time."

"You just can't expect things to change overnight," she said. "I like that people are starting to recognize that women do deserve equal pay and they deserve the same that a male gets."