WTA Equal Prize Money Closes Combined 1000s and Lightens 500s

The WTA will pay women and men the same at every combined 1000 event in 2027, adding Rome, Canada and Cincinnati to the four that already do. On October 1 the tour folded that step into a one-year pilot that cuts two mandatory 500s for top-50 players and lets a stronger 500 or 250 result replace one 1000 in the rankings. A new Tournament Investment Fund will help selected events carry the cost.

The 2027 WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz lists 55 tournaments in 26 countries and territories. Equal pay at all combined WTA 1000 events is the line the tour wants remembered. The calendar rewrite is what will move the draws.

Rome, Canada and Cincinnati Close the Combined 1000 Gap

Seven combined 1000s sit on the joint calendar. Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing already pay both draws the same. The Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Montreal and Toronto, and the Cincinnati Open are the three that still run two purses in 2026.

Those three join the equal-pay group in 2027, alongside the United Cup and the four Grand Slams. The US Open has paid both singles champions the same since 1973. Wimbledon, the last of the slams to do it, has done so since 2007.

THE 2026 CHAMPION CHEQUES

The 2026 men’s and women’s prize ladders show where the remaining gap actually sits. It is not mainly in the winner’s envelope.

Canada and Cincinnati Still Run Two Funds

At the National Bank Open the women play for $7,433,076 and the men for $9,415,724, a $1,982,648 hole that leaves the women’s fund 21 per cent smaller. A men’s champion takes $1,151,420 against $1,085,220. A man beaten in the first round takes $24,335 against $18,420.

Cincinnati prints the same women’s total of $7,433,076 against a men’s purse of $9,415,725. The champion gap is again about 6 per cent. The first round is the wide end. A man who loses his opener takes $24,335. A woman who loses hers takes $16,260, so the man is paid 50 per cent more in the round that pays the most players.

Rome’s Winner Cheque Already Flips

Rome is the odd one in the holdout group. The ATP lists a Rome prize money total of €8,235,540 on the men’s side, with the champion paid €1,007,165. The women’s champion is paid €1,055,285, which is €48,120 more than the men’s winner, out of a smaller overall fund. Matching the two 2026 purses in 2027 means lifting the women’s ladder, not trimming the men’s winner.

What the 2023 Pathway Promised, and What It Left

On June 27, 2023, the WTA published a pathway toward equal prize money that split the job in two. Combined 1000 and 500 events were to match the men by 2027. Single-week 1000 and 500 events were put on a 2033 clock. The same plan lifted the 1000 count to 10, stretched several of those events to two weeks, and tried to make the 500s more valuable with more stops and tighter entry rules.

Thursday’s release closes the combined 1000 column. It names the United Cup and the slams as already there. It does not present a finished round of equal pay at combined 500s, which the 2023 text had grouped with the 1000s on the same 2027 date.

Rome had a private deadline inside that public one. Italian Open organizers pledged in 2023 to equalize by 2025 and did not. The 2027 date now does the work that 2025 did not.

THE ROAD FROM THE ORIGINAL 9

1. 1973: Billie Jean King and more than 60 players found the WTA, building on the Original 9. The US Open pays men and women the same.
2. 2007: Wimbledon becomes the last Grand Slam to pay both singles champions equally.
3. June 27, 2023: The WTA sets 2027 for combined 1000 and 500 events and 2033 for single-week 1000s and 500s.
4. 2025: Rome misses its own equal-pay target.
5. October 1, 2026: The tour confirms that every combined 1000 will pay equally in 2027 and publishes the pilot calendar rules.
6. 2027: The pay step and the one-year commitment pilot take effect. The WTA Finals open in Charlotte, North Carolina, through 2029.
7. 2033: The target date that remains for single-week 1000 and 500 events.

Steve Simon, then chairman and chief executive, called equal compensation a fundamental principle in that 2023 release. Valerie Camillo, who now chairs the WTA, is the one signing the 2027 version.

Four Mandatory 500s, Down From Six

The Tour Architecture Council, a working group of players, tournaments and WTA leadership chaired by world No. 3 Jessica Pegula, wrote the 2027 commitment changes. The WTA Board approved them as a one-year pilot, with a review before any 2028 decision.

Top-50 singles players must play four WTA 500 events instead of six. Counted with the rest of the required slate, that is a base of 14 WTA tournaments plus the four Grand Slams. The arithmetic is 10 of the 1000s and four of the 500s. Once the slams are added, that is still 18 required weeks.

Camillo said the tour had listened to player feedback on the demands of the calendar and answered with a reduction in commitments. The 500s are where the reduction lands. In 2023 the tour was trying to build those events up. In 2027 the same events lose two guaranteed top-50 appearances.

THE 2027 PILOT RULES

• Equal combined 1000s: Rome, the National Bank Open and Cincinnati match the men, completing a set of seven.
• Fewer 500s: Top-50 singles players drop from six required 500s to four, for 14 WTA events plus four slams.
• Ranking swap: One eligible 1000 result can be replaced by a stronger 500 or 250 result.
• Central fund: A Tournament Investment Fund will send money to selected events, including to support equal prize money.
• One-year test: The commitment and ranking changes run in 2027 only, then the board reviews them for 2028.

A new WTA 250 in Manila is on the 2027 calendar in November, the week before the Finals in Charlotte. That stop is a bet on a home market around Alex Eala, ranked 18th. It does not change the mandatory math for the top 50.

Players Can Swap One 1000 Result for a 500

The ranking rule is the piece that will rearrange fields. A player may replace one eligible WTA 1000 tournament result with a stronger WTA 500 or 250 result. A bad 1000 week no longer has to sit in the ranking if a deeper run at a smaller event is sitting there instead.

That pulls names toward the 500s they like and away from the 500s they were only playing because six of them were required. It also gives a 250 a way to count for more than it does now, if the week is good enough and the 1000 week it replaces is not.

As players, we’re on the road most of the year, so having more flexibility in our schedules and commitments makes a real difference. The 2027 changes give us more ability to build our seasons around our own goals.

Jessica Pegula, Tour Architecture Council chair, WTA announcement

The calendar itself arrived on October 1, late for anyone mapping an Asia swing. Three events still sit in the week after the Australian Open on the 2027 grid, so the lighter 500 rule does not flatten every cluster. Flexibility here means fewer forced mid-tier weeks, not a shorter year.

Who Pays When a Combined 1000 Equals Up

The WTA is not leaving the last three combined 1000s to close the gap from gate receipts alone. It is launching a Tournament Investment Fund that will send targeted support to selected markets, with equal prize money listed among the reasons for the money.

The WTA is stepping up to deliver more for players and tournaments in 2027. Achieving equal prize money across all combined WTA 1000 tournaments is a major milestone for tennis. And, our new Tournament Investment Fund is modeled after central funding models common to other professional sports leagues in that it will target financial support to select markets to the benefit of the overall health of the Tour.

Valerie Camillo, Chair of the WTA

The tour did not publish the fund’s size, which events will receive it, or how much of a 2026 gap in Rome, Canada or Cincinnati the money is meant to cover.

THE CASH THE TOUR PUT ON THE TABLE IN SEPTEMBER

• Year-end cash: Figures the tour presented in New York meetings in September put 2026 year-end cash at $15 million.
• Operating losses: The same figures project 2026 operating losses of $23 million.
• Fund size: The Tournament Investment Fund that is supposed to help pay for parity has no published total.

Those September figures sit one month behind an equal-pay announcement that still needs someone to write the extra cheques. Camillo’s fund is the mechanism. Until the WTA names the events and the amounts, the last three combined 1000s are being told they will pay equally in 2027 without a public bill.

Single-Week Stops Wait Until 2033

The 2023 pathway left a second date on the wall. Single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events are still aimed at 2033, six years after the combined 1000s equalize. Doha and Dubai are the obvious names in that waiting room, one-week 1000s that do not share a combined ATP 1000 draw the way Indian Wells or Miami do.

Washington, Tokyo and other same-tier stops in the same city still pay the two tours out of different funds in 2026. Thursday’s release does not move them onto the 2027 equal-pay list. The 500s that lose two mandatory top-50 weeks are the events the 2023 plan had tried to thicken. They now compete for stars with a ranking rule that can make a 250 week more useful than a dead 1000.

The board will look at the 2027 pilot before it decides what 2028 requires. Combined 1000s will pay the same either way. The 500s will find out after one season whether four mandatory weeks, and a ranking slot they can steal from a 1000, is the new floor or just a test.