$60,000 Pete Sampras Eye-Opener That Triggered American Tennis Legend Venus Williams to Kick-Start Sporting Revolution Inspired by Billie Jean King

This year’s US Open is a special one for female tennis players. It marks the 50th anniversary of the tournament introducing equal pay for male and female athletes. It was the first-ever Grand Slam tournament to offer equal prize money regardless of gender. While the end result was desired, it required a long-standing fight against the issue of prize discrepancy based on gender.

At the forefront of this revolution, was none other than legend Billie Jean King. Further, the likes of Venus Williams continued this fight. Recently, Venus revealed what motivated her to stand against this issue. Let’s dive into what she said.

Venus Williams opens up about her fight against gender-based pay gap

While Billie fought hard to introduce equal pay at the US Open, it was Venus who raised this issue at Wimbledon and helped start equal pay at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. During an interview, she reminisced about her battle for equal pay.

Talking about it, she said, “I admit that I probably wasn’t all that aware of the pay inequity that existed between men and women in our sport until I started to play Grand Slam tournaments. At 17, it really was an eye-opener for me. And when I won my first major title at Wimbledon in 2000, I was presented a check for 430,000 pounds. A day later, Pete Sampras won the men’s title and received 477,500 pounds.” This was almost $60,000 more than what Venus had earned.

Further, Venus went on to add, “Now, I suppose you could say that wasn’t all that much of a difference, but the fact that it wasn’t all that much made it even harder to understand. It was as if they just felt the need to pay women less.”

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Venus has been a very humble personality on and off the court. She once downplayed her contribution to this sporting revolution.

Venus remained down-to-earth

During an interview a few years back, the former World Number 1 reacted as she received massive praise for her fight for equal pay. However, she refused to take the credit herself, denoting that it was Billie who had inspired her fight. Additionally, she felt that she received too much credit for this revolution.

Venus was joined by her sister Serena in the fight for equal prize money at the Wimbledon Championships. Eventually, the grass-court Grand Slam tournament brought in equal pay for all, and other tournaments soon followed suit.

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