Wheelchair tennis players who competed in this year’s Australian Open have taken home the highest prize pool yet, Tennis Australia has told the Feed.
The prize pool of $863,166, up from $583,800, was increased “to better align with the total prize money pool of other slams, and secondly due to the increase in the quad draw size,” Tennis Australia said in a statement provided to the Feed.
“We have significantly increased total wheelchair prize pool money over the last five years well above percentage increases for able-bodied athletes.”
In 2019, the total wheelchair tennis prize pool sat at just $200,000. This year’s boost means that the Australian Open total wheelchair sum now sits around the same as the 2021 US Open, with Wimbledon's total pool believed to be even higher. Last year's wheelchair singles winners at Wimbledon took home $91,445.
But the gap between wheelchair stars and able-bodied athletes remains stark.
Alcott: 'It needs to get better'
Dylan Alcott, who was recently named Australian of the Year and has won 15 Grand Slam singles titles, praised the Australian Open for leading the way on the issue but said more had to be done.
Speaking after he lost the quad wheelchair final to Sam Schroder last Thursday, Alcott said:
“I won the lead-in tournament here and it was like $1300. How much is a flight from Europe, $3000?
“It’s not just Australia, it’s all around the world. We don’t get $3.5 million for winning.
“We get less than half the first-round loser that the able-bodied get at all slams.”
The winners of men’s and women’s singles slams at the Australian Open pocketed $2.875 million, while the runners-up received $1.575 million.
Semi-finalists left with $895,000, and players who lost in the first round still earned $103,000.
In comparison, wheelchair players earn far less with the men's and women's singles champions pocketing $69,057, and the runners-up receiving $34,530.
Dylan Alcott during a mens quad wheelchair singles match. Source: AAP
Alcott said it was an improvement from the “firm handshake and cold Powerade” he used to get, but the same rights and opportunities had still not been afforded to wheelchair tennis players.
“We have the best Paralympic sport in the world because of the integration with the able-bodied tour. It’s unbelievable. And we do a poor job of leveraging that all year,” said Alcott, who is now retired.
“But people internally sometimes don’t do as good a job to understand how good the product is.
“People think we’re lucky to be here; get stuffed. We deserve to be here. We’re selling tickets, sponsors are making money and people are loving it. So start thinking like that and then it will all change.”
‘Travel is more expensive for wheelchair athletes’
CEO of Disability Sports Australia, Murray Elbourn told the Feed for wheelchair athletes, and other competitors with a disability, travelling to events is often more costly.
“I think for Dylan's case and other wheelchair athletes, some travel is a lot more expensive. With their chairs, there are extra baggage costs," said Mr Elbourn.
“And oftentimes they'll have to bring a support person to assist them with travel on and off planes and through airports, into cars and things.”
During last year’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced extra funding to Paralympics Australia to ensure Paralympians were awarded equal medal bonuses as their Olympic counterparts between medal bonuses.
Mr Elbourn said the moment was “a massive step forward” and hoped the discussion would propel other sports into having the conversation, adding that high viewership confirms a strong interest.
“Through the Paralympic Games we saw that there was a large number of viewers for disability sport, and so the hope is that we can close that gap and showcase that people do want to watch,” said Mr Elbourn.
Last week, Channel Nine made the rare decision to delay their news bulletin to broadcast the quad wheelchair final in which Alcott was competing.
"Its opportunities of equal rights, broadcasting, sponsorships, all of those things will provide a massive opportunity for disability athletes to earn the same type of money as able-bodied athletes," said Mr Elbourn.
