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Nick Kyrgios suggests that it does not make sense that female players are paid the same as men in Grand Slams. For the past 16 years, all four Grand Slams have been offering equal prize money for men and women. At the Grand Slam level, men's matches are played in the best-of-five-sets format while their female colleagues play the best-of-three-sets.
Because of that, Kyrgios seemingly thinks men deserve to be paid more. “If we’re merging, you merge the draws, you merge everything. I played for four hours at the A.O. (Australian Open), then [Elina] Svitolina played for like 40 minutes and we both got paid the same.
But why is tennis the only sport that deals with this stuff? If the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) said, ‘Let’s merge’, the NBA would ridicule them," Kyrgios told The Athletic.
Kyrgios on what he'd do if Saudi Arabia launched a tour
As Saudi Arabia is getting more into sport, there have been some rumors about the Kingdom potentially looking to launch a tennis breakaway super tour.
If that ever happened, 2022 Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios wouldn't think much about what to do. “I would have been the first one to jump off. I would have gone. I would have just let the ATP ship sink,” Kyrgios said.
Meanwhile, Kyrgios also addressed playing just one tournament and one match match in 2023 after having his career-best year in 2022. “I played a full year last year, no injuries; had great results, had a great year.
I barely played this year, two surgeries, and now still, I would probably say they’re both equally as fine, which is crazy. Most tennis players would be like, ‘This was just depressing’. People would be struggling, they would be like, ‘What do I do? Who’s my identity?’ This year, it’s been equally as enjoyable as last year.
That’s just my personality and how different it is. That’s the crazy thing," Kyrgios said. After basically missing the entire 2023 season, Kyrgios is also set to miss the start of the 2024 season after announcing his Australian Open withdrawal last week. Kyrgios is still dealing with a wrist injury and he is set to miss the Australian Open in back-to-back years.