Rafael Nadal Speaks Out on Gender Pay Gap

It was a poignant moment in Barcelona today as the Spaniard, David Ferrer played his eventual match in the Catalonian capital against his friend and foe, Rafael Nadal. The juncture was moving when Ferrer’s countryfolk gave him an ovation and him placing his bandana on the center court of the Pista Rafa Nadal.

The World Number two, Rafael Nadal is through to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Ferrer and now he will take on Jan-Lennard Struff in the last eight round at the Barcelona Open 2019. 

Soon after, Rafael Nadal wrapped up with his match, he was interrogated upon Victoria Azarenka’s tweets. She portrayed, “men should always play the best of three since they would be matches of better quality”.

Rafael Nadal responded, “We are happy to play the best of five sets, the prize money does not matter, that’s your debate, not ours.” The Spaniard feels tennis is the only sport on this planet where men and women are aligned closely with each other in terms of remuneration. Rafael Nadal later juxtaposed tennis with other sports and he states that women experience a skewed treatment in those fields and whereas in tennis women are parallel to men.

“It’s funny that you always debate the equality of prize money in tennis when we are the only sport in the world that we have the same prize money in almost all the tournaments,” Rafa continued. “I do not know why you do not debate about football, basketball or other important sports in the world where women are miles away from tennis, you always talk about tennis when we support the female circuit more than any other sport in the world.”

Rafael Nadal believes that we are all human beings and we deserve equality. Also, he perceives if you have a polished skill set, people like your work and you achieve the targets eventually you get superior pay than others. Similarly in tennis, if you do a good job on the court consequently your paycheck multiplies irrespective of who you are.

“I am a little tired of always thinking that we are against women. No, that is not like that. Another thing is who sells more or less, that’s another debate. This is not about women or men. We are all people and we are equal but some deserve more and others deserve less. If we are in the same company and I do my job better, I must earn more than the rest. It does not matter if it’s a man or a woman. I’m a little tired about this debate all the time,” mentioned Rafael Nadal.