‘Corporations Are Owned by..’- Martina Navratilova Voices Damning Reality as a ‘Battle for Decades’ Rages On in the World of Sports

After retirement in 2003, Martina Navratilova has actively worked for women’s rights in tennis. In this context, she has been particular in speaking about the disparity in pay between male and female tennis players. Navratilova previously spoke about her own experience of the pay disparity in a BBC interview in 2018. In this interview, she revealed how John McEnroe received ten times more than her as a commentator of that year’s Wimbledon tournament.

Navratilova recently faced many criticisms due to her remark on the challenges of female athletes that hurt the emotions of her non-binary fans. However, she also opened up about her biological realities despite being a non-binary person. Now bringing the context of pay disparity, this former world’s number-one tennis star once again expressed her vocal support for female athletes.

Navratilova raised her voice once again for pay equity for female athletes

In a recent Podcast with Kara Swisher, Navratilova spoke about many crucial issues of professional sports. However, she seemed very vocal about the pay disparity in professional sports, wishing to achieve pay equity for female athletes. Navratilova said, “Well, it’s, you know, we’ve been fighting that fight always when a woman’s endeavor fails, it’s because it was women doing it and you’re done forever, whether it’s in business or sports or entertainment, women can’t afford to fail. And so if things don’t go perfectly, you know, you lose the sponsorship, you lose the endorsements, whatever. And then it’s hard to find new ones. Whereas with male sports, they’re lining up at the door. Why? Because corporations are owned by men, they would rather give the money to other men athletes than women athletes.”

Now, Navratilova’s comment revealed the challenges of women athletes to always remain in form despite going through childbirth, which impacts their physicality a lot.

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However, this eighteen-time Grand Slam winner is not losing hope anytime soon. She further added to her comments- “So it’s been a battle for decades that it’s taking way too long to get that equity. But we keep fighting, at least we have it in the majors, but now the tours, you know, there are countries where women can’t even compete. So the guys have a much bigger playing field. And it’s been more difficult for us to get that equal prize money.”

Navratilova is enraged about WTA’s reconsideration to host tournament finals in Saudi Arabia

Navratilova’s comment surely expressed that pay equity is not just her only concern but she aims for more for female athletes. One of these factors includes the independence of female athletes in rigid foreign countries. For example, ATP’s under 21 tournament’s final was recently hosted in Jeddah.

However, WTA was hesitant to do the same considering the country’s strict rules against women and homosexuality. Now that Saudia Arabia almost tripled the prize money for convincing WTA’s decision for the US Open in their country, Navratilova opposed the idea completely. She wanted to be sure of the country’s integrity towards female tennis players before making any final decisions.

Navratilova’s comments have surely highlighted her as a true tennis activist. The way she is vocal about pay equity and female tennis players’ rights, surely offers a great example for tennis stalwarts like Serena Williams or Sharapova to use their position and fame for the betterment of the tennis fraternity.

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