WTA confirms equal prize money at all combined 1000s from 2027
Women will earn the same prize money as men at every combined WTA 1000 tournament from 2027.
The WTA confirmed the move on 1 October, closing one of the last pay gaps at the top of tennis. A WTA 1000 is the tier just below the Grand Slams, and a combined event means the men's and women's tours play side by side in the same week. The Guardian
Rome will join the list next season. The 2027 Italian Open will pay its women's field the same total pot as the men, alongside the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open. Those three were the remaining combined 1000s still paying uneven money. Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing already pay equal money, and all four Grand Slams already do.
Rome tells the story sharpest. This year the men played for $9.6m in total in Rome while the women played for $8.3m. Organisers in Italy had pledged in 2023 to reach parity by 2025, but did not follow through. Go further back and the gap yawns. Billie Jean King earned $600 for winning the Italian Open in 1970. Ilie Nastase earned $3,500 for winning the men's title that same year.
WTA chair Valerie Camillo called full parity across the combined 1000s a major milestone for tennis.
What makes this stand out is the setting. Combined weeks invite direct comparison. Same courts, same crowds, same week. Different cheques jarred. Parity removes that argument.
For fans, this means cleaner stakes. The maths of rankings and seedings, the system that stops top players meeting early, already treats both draws the same. Now the money does too, at least at these joint events.
The announcement came with wider calendar changes for 2027. The WTA will stage an expanded WTA 250 event in Manila next year, the lowest of the three main tour tiers, amid growing interest around Filipina Alex Eala, ranked 18th. Players in the top 50 will have a lighter mandatory load. They must play four WTA 500 events a year, down from six. The total base commitment, the minimum number of tour stops a player must enter, will be 14 WTA tournaments plus the four Grand Slams.
The WTA said the 2027 updates will run as a one-year pilot to judge the impact before decisions for 2028 and beyond.
Longer-term targets still sit in the background. Under a pathway set out in 2023, combined WTA 500 events were due to reach equal prize money by 2027, with single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events to follow by 2033. The season-ending WTA Finals move to Charlotte from 2027, although prize money for that edition has not yet been set. Rome is scheduled for 4 to 16 May 2027.
