Copyright © 2016. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

WTA chief executive Steve Simon is not a man to rush into a row. However after almost a couple of weeks digesting the comments made by Ion Tiriac, owner of the Mutua Madrid Open, who claimed: “I don’t think the women can complain that they don’t earn enough money.”

In the wake of Raymond Moore’s comments at Indian Wells, Tiriac said he was in discussions with the WTA over the viability of continuing to offer equal pay. However indicated his tournament may move away from paying the same to the men and women players.

“The comments that came out of Madrid were certainly disappointing, because that tournament was one of the leaders in this process,” said Simon. “They signed up and agreed as a Mandatory event sanction to support equal prize money.

“We fully expect them to continue showing that leadership, and supporting it going forward. But obviously, there are issues still to address.”

Simon continued: “The fact that the conversation comes up is disappointing, to say the least. It’s a conversation that’s been done; the agreements are in place for it, and I think we should be embracing it as opposed to talking about it.

“I don’t think we need to be talking about it; we need to be talking about how we can do it more, and expanding it across all of our events and things like that, which we still have work to do in that space.

Simon, as a former tournament director of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, has experience of the thinking of people who actually stage the events and therefore a unique understanding of the problems currently arising.

“This is business and revenues are like oxygen, which allow you to breathe in business,” he said. “So they’re very important, and equality isn’t an entitlement. It needs to be earned, and you need to do your job and invest into it.”

Copyright © 2016. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.