Top 100 momentsNo. 88
Equal prize money
Wimbledon pays women the same as men. Venus Williams had made it a campaign. The oldest tournament in tennis stops being the holdout.
The French Open and the U.S. Open had already equalized. Wimbledon had reasons, history, and a shorter women’s format to hide behind. In 2007 the prize money matches. Venus Williams, champion again that year, had gone to the press and the committee.
It is not the end of pay fights in tennis. It is the end of the All England Club as the elegant exception. The plate and the check finally tell the same story.
Grand Slam tennis sells itself as the top of the sport. 2007 is when the top of the sport, in London, stopped paying a discount for being a woman.