Andy Murray Criticizes Gender Pay Gap at Dubai Championships

The British player said this is “a big step backwards” for tennis.

British tennis star Andy Murray is known for standing up for gender equality in the sport. 

Murray is now speaking out once again on the issue of gender equality, this time at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The event is slated to pay the men’s singles winner nearly five times the amount that the women’s singles winner won last week. Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko won $104,180 last weekend, while the winner of the men’s singles draw will take home $523,740.

“Obviously, that's a big step backwards, so it's not great,” Murray said during his Wednesday press conference. “Obviously, if they're the same size events one week apart, that's quite a big discrepancy.”

The Dubai Championships has not commented on the matter. Murray exited the tournament on Monday in the round of 32.