WTA Announces Equal Prize Money for Combined 1000 Events

The Women’s Tennis Association has taken a significant step in its long-running push for equality, announcing that all combined WTA 1000 tournaments will award equal prize money to women and men from 2027.

The decision means major events such as the Italian Open, the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open will finally align with the rest of the elite calendar, bringing one of tennis’s most visible pay gaps closer to closure. For the WTA, it is being framed as more than a policy update. It is a symbolic milestone nearly six decades in the making.

A landmark moment for the women’s tour

WTA chair Valerie Camillo called the move a “major milestone” and said it reflects the tour’s ongoing commitment to competitive and financial equality. Her comments underscored how much weight the announcement carries, not just for the sport’s business model, but for its identity.

The change completes a major piece of the WTA’s elite tournament structure. Until now, combined WTA 1000 events in Rome, Toronto/Montreal and Cincinnati remained exceptions, while tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing had already introduced equal prize money. The four Grand Slams also offer parity.

In practical terms, the announcement closes one of the most prominent gaps in women’s tennis at the top tier of the game. It is a breakthrough that connects the present tour directly to the sport’s equality movement led for decades by Billie Jean King.

Rome finally catches up

The Italian Open carries extra historical weight in this discussion. Billie Jean King has often recalled how, in 1970, she earned $600 for winning the women’s title in Rome while Ilie Nastase took home $3,500 for the men’s event. That contrast became part of the broader case for reform in professional tennis.

Nearly 60 years later, the same tournament will award women the same amount of total prize money as men from 2027. For many in the sport, that detail makes the announcement feel especially personal and especially overdue.

Roma had been one of the clearest holdouts. Organisers had previously pledged equal prize money from 2025, but that promise did not materialize. This year, the men’s prize fund in Rome stood at $9.6 million, while the women’s purse was $8.3 million, illustrating how much ground still needed to be covered.

More flexibility for players

The announcement was not limited to prize money. The WTA also unveiled a broader schedule adjustment for 2027, including an expanded WTA 250-level tournament in Manila, Philippines, amid strong interest in home star Alex Eala, who is ranked 18th.

Another key change is a reduction in the number of annual WTA 500 events required for players ranked in the top 50, dropping from six to four. That adjustment will reduce the base playing commitment to 14 WTA tournaments plus the four Grand Slams in 2027.

For players balancing travel, recovery and performance goals, the policy shift could have a noticeable impact. Jessica Pegula, who chairs the WTA’s tour architecture council, said the changes would help athletes shape their seasons with more control.

“As players, we’re on the road most of the year, so having more flexibility in our schedules and commitments makes a real difference,” Pegula said. “The 2027 changes give us more ability to build our seasons around our own goals – competitively and personally. That’s an impactful step forward for players.”

A pilot year with bigger implications

The WTA said the updated structure will be introduced as a one-year pilot in 2027. The tour plans to assess how the changes affect competition, player workload and event growth before making longer-term decisions for 2028 and beyond.

That makes this more than a one-season experiment. It is a test of whether a modernized calendar and equal-prize framework can support both athlete welfare and commercial growth across the women’s game.

Still, the headline remains clear: combined WTA 1000 events will now finally sit on equal financial footing. In a sport where equality has long been debated in public and negotiated behind the scenes, the message is unmistakable.

As one industry observer put it, the announcement signals that tennis is not simply honoring its history of activism. It is continuing it.