The huge gap: Queen's Club prize money nearly triples for men's champion

This Monday marked the start of the ATP 500 Queen's Club Championships, featuring Carlos Alcaraz and Jack Draper as the main figures. The previous week saw the women's edition – the first in over 50 years – which concluded with Tatjana Maria as champion, after defeating Amanda Anisimova in straight sets.

The 37-year-old German lifted the most significant trophy of her career, her first WTA 500. Maria took home a total prize money of $164,000, while finalist Amanda Anisimova pocketed $101,000 for her campaign in the tournament.

Despite being tournaments of the same category, the men this week will play for significantly larger prizes – nearly triple the money. The champion this week will take home €471,755, while the finalist will receive €253,790.

Both tournaments are held at exactly the same facilities and with the same match conditions (best of three sets). Furthermore, both are of the same category (ATP and WTA 500), yet still have diametrically different prize money.

The LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) has promised to introduce equal prize money by 2029 – for both the Queen's Club Championships and Eastbourne International, the two tournaments they organize that have ATP and WTA categories. It's worth remembering that at Wimbledon – as with the other Grand Slams – monetary prizes are equal for both draws, something that has not yet been achieved across the rest of the Tour's tournaments.