ATP/WTA Madrid Open Owner Ion Tiriac said that his tournament is "one of three outside the Grand Slam events that pay male and female players equally," but he has "joined the dissent within tennis leadership on the topic of equal prize money," according to Ben Rothenberg of the N.Y. TIMES. He said, "We have to go and calculate how much money are the men putting on the table, and how much the women, with TV rights. Because otherwise we have to compensate, and compensate, and compensate, and you cannot compensate forever. For that reason, it’s a beautiful sport, but I don’t think the women can complain that they don’t earn enough money.” Tiriac said that he "was 'discussing' with the WTA the viability of continuing to offer equal pay, a proposition he considers especially untenable because of the pay increases demanded by the ATP." He conceded that paying women equally once they reached the semifinals "would be acceptable." Tiriac: "I have in excess of $11 million in prize money for both of them: almost $6 million for men and $6 million for women. And I cannot go like this forever. And everybody would understand this, at least. It’s very simple.” WTA CEO Steve Simon "acknowledged the disparity in revenue generated by the respective television agreements of the ATP and WTA, but said that the disparity represented only one part of the equation for the tournament" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/10).
