In July, it became clear that Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido is taking over as the new main sponsor for the women's WTA playoffs in tennis. The tournament will be decided this week in Shenzhen, China.

The winner takes home between the equivalent of SEK 45.6 and 39.7 million, depending on the number of match wins in the tournament that includes group games, semifinals and finals.

- It is incredible money, totally senseless amounts. I wish it would be this way in all sports going forward: That in some tournaments there will be more for ladies than for men, and a little mixed. It's a small trend breach they (the WTA playoffs) account for here, ”says Maria Strandlund Tomsvik, national team coach for Sweden.

By comparison, the winner of the men's ATP playoffs in November can play a maximum of SEK 27.7 million.

- It is a huge achievement for WTA - not only the highest price tag on the tour but also in general. Hopefully we can do even better in the future, Ukrainian last year's winner Elina Svitolina told the New York Times earlier.

"As tennis professionals, we are fortunate to be able to live on the sport we love, to receive such a great reward is a great privilege," Australian world champion Ashleigh Barty said earlier in a statement to CNN.

The victory check in Sunday's final is the largest ever in tennis, both women's and men's tournaments included. But it is not very unexpected that it is precisely within the sport that the historical prize money is distributed.

Since the icon Billie Jean King's protests in the 1970s, tennis has taken great strides in terms of gender equality, seen in the money of the big tournaments.

- For a long time it has been equal prize money in the grand slam tournaments. Since then, the price money of the tours has not been completely equal - but quite. So you have come very far there in tennis. Then there may be some tournaments, depending on the category, where there is more money for the men. But that's not such a big difference anymore, says Maria Strandlund Tomsvik.

In Singapore last year, when the French major bank BNP Paribas was the main sponsor, Elina Svitolina's victory was worth SEK 22.8 million. The winner of the year thus gets about double.

- This is just a receipt for the women's tennis stand very, very strong. That there are companies that want to go in and put these huge sums in a WTA playoffs. There are huge sums in the men's ATP playoffs as well. But if you put them two against each other, this is the first time the ladies have more. Hopefully, we won't even have to compare these issues going forward.

This weekend the semi-finals and the finals are played on the really big money.

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