"Serena Williams won Grand Slams without breaking a sweat": Russian tennis legend argues against women earning same prize money as men

All four Grand Slams now offer equal prize money and the likes of Venus and Serena Williams were instrumental in bringing about the positive change. Former pro Nikolay Davydenko, however, used the former’s dominance to question the equity.

Speaking to matctv.ru on Thursday, December 5, Davydenko said the equal prize money may make sense at the Tour level where both men and women play the same number of sets but not at Grand Slams.

Notably, men’s matches at Grand Slam are best-of-five affairs, while women compete in the standard three-setters. Citing the format in his argument against equal prize money, the Russian said Serena Williams has gone about winning Grand Slam titles after losing just 10 games when men’s players often lose as many in the opening matches that tend to run longer.

"At 250, 500, 1000 series tournaments — maybe," Denis Bushkovsky said. "But when they shout about Grand Slams… You don’t play five-set matches." (Translated from Russian).

"Serena Williams won Grand Slams, losing only 10 games per tournament," he continued. "She won 6:0, 6:1, 6:2, without even breaking a sweat or feeling stressed. And men lose 10 games only in the first match, we need to fight. It happens that you play a five-setter in the first round — and then you get pumped up."

Davydenko doubled down on his views, saying men’s players put in three times the amount of work that women do at Grand Slams, thus making the equal prize money “unfair” to them.

"Men’s tennis players do three times more work than women, especially at Grand Slams. So paying out equal prize money is unfair," the Russian said.

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Serena Williams lifted her last Grand Slam title at 2017 Australian Open

Venus and Serena Williams at the 2017 Australian Open. (Source: Getty)

Serena Williams won her last Grand Slam title, a memorable 23rd, at the 2017 Australian Open, defeating her sister Venus Williams in the final 6-4, 6-4. She made four other finals after that, but could not lift the trophy.

The American’s run at the 2017 Australian Open was among her most dominant, as she did not drop a single set en route to the title. She had posted big wins over the likes of Belinda Bencic, Johanna Konta and Barbora Strycova over the course of the tournament.

Among other Grand Slam victories where Williams won all the sets that she played are the 2002 and 2010 Wimbledon Championships as well as the 2002, 2008 and 2014 US Opens.