Fifty-six years after Billie Jean King collected $600 for winning the Italian Open while men’s champion Ilie Nastase banked $3,500 for the same fortnight’s work, Rome will pay its women’s champion exactly what it pays its men’s. The Women’s Tennis Association confirmed on Thursday that every combined WTA 1000 tournament will award equal prize money from 2027 — a change WTA chair Valerie Camillo called “a major milestone for tennis.”
The announcement came as part of the WTA’s 2027 calendar release, a 55-event schedule across 26 countries and territories that also cuts mandatory tournaments for the sport’s leading players and moves the season-ending WTA Finals to a new home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Rome, Canada and Cincinnati complete the set
Three events were the holdouts, and all three are now in: the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, the National Bank Open in Canada and the Cincinnati Open. They join the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the Miami Open, the Mutua Madrid Open and the China Open in Beijing, where men and women already earn the same. The United Cup and all four Grand Slams also pay equally.
The gap being closed is not symbolic. At this year’s Rome tournament, the men’s total prize pot stood at $9.6 million against $8.3 million for the women — a $1.3m shortfall at an event staged on the same site, in the same two weeks, with the same ticket holders walking through the same gates. Cincinnati and the Canadian Open carried comparable disparities.
“Achieving equal prize money across all combined WTA 1000 tournaments is a major milestone for tennis,” Camillo said, adding that “the WTA is stepping up to deliver more for players and tournaments in 2027.”
A 50-year objective, and a 2033 deadline still to meet
Equal pay has been the WTA’s founding argument since 1970, when King and the Original Nine signed $1 contracts to launch a breakaway circuit rather than keep accepting purses a fraction the size of the men’s. The US Open became the first major to equalise in 1973; the Australian Open followed in 2001, Roland Garros in 2006 and Wimbledon, last of the four, in 2007.
The 1000 level took considerably longer, in part because combined events are run by tournament owners rather than the tour, and in part because the ATP and WTA sell their rights separately even when they share a stadium. The WTA published its roadmap in 2023, setting two deadlines:
- 2027 for combined WTA 1000 and 500 events, where the men’s and women’s draws are staged together
- 2033 for single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events, which have no men’s tournament alongside them to match
Thursday’s confirmation means the first of those targets will be met on schedule. The second remains six years out, and it is the harder one: events such as Wuhan and Dubai must find the money from their own commercial base rather than by dividing a combined pot more evenly. Until 2033, a player who wins a standalone 1000 will still be paid less than one who wins a combined one.
Fewer mandatory events — and a pilot the players asked for
The prize money change arrived alongside a reduction in playing commitments, the issue that has dominated player complaints about the WTA calendar for three seasons. Top-50 players will be required to enter four WTA 500 events in 2027, down from six. That takes the base commitment to 14 WTA tournaments plus the four majors.
Players will also be allowed to substitute one WTA 1000 result with a stronger 500 or 250 result for ranking purposes — a concession that softens the penalty for skipping a mandatory event. The whole package runs as a one-year pilot, to be assessed before it is made permanent.
The changes were shaped by the tour architecture council, the player working group chaired by world number three Jessica Pegula. “Having more flexibility in our schedules and commitments makes a real difference,” Pegula said, framing it as players being able to build seasons around both competitive and personal goals.
Elsewhere on the 2027 calendar, Manila steps up to WTA 250 status, capitalising on the rise of 21-year-old Alex Eala, now ranked 18th and the first Filipino player to reach the top 20. The WTA also launched a Tournament Investment Fund to direct money toward selected markets, acknowledging that equal prize money raises the cost of staging an event and that some tournaments will need help absorbing it.
**Sources:** [WTA official release](https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4585126/wta-announces-2027-calendar-equal-prize-money-milestone-and-player-tournament-led-enhancements) · [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/50077242/wta-passes-major-milestone-equal-prize-money-wta-1000s) · [Sky Sports](https://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/13594119/womens-tennis-association-announces-major-milestone-with-equal-prize-money-across-all-combined-1000-tournaments-from-2027) · [Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/tennis/article/wta-announces-equal-prize-money-for-all-2027-events-for-the-first-time-160139957.html)
Article body is 735 words. Two notes on the facts, since several outlets differ: Sky Sports dates King’s Rome title to 1969, while ESPN’s account — which carries the $600 v $3,500 figures — places it in 1970, so I used ESPN’s version. I also avoided stating how many combined WTA 1000s there are, as the releases name the seven events without giving a total.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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