--- title: Novak Djokovic Says Men Deserve More Money Than Women description: Novak Djokovic said men deserve more prize money than women in the tennis world because they draw more viewers to the stands. canonical: https://time.com/4265706/novak-djokovic-men-tennis-money/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-21T12:10:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:23:13.982Z article:section: Sports og:title: Novak Djokovic Says Men’s Tennis Deserves More Money Than Women og:description: "The stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches" og:url: https://time.com/4265706/novak-djokovic-men-tennis-money/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd62a538532e248b0/69888bc2bc6cfcabf83dc38f/novak-djokovic-women-tennis.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Novak-Djokovic-women-tennis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Novak Djokovic Says Men’s Tennis Deserves More Money Than Women twitter:description: "The stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd62a538532e248b0/69888bc2bc6cfcabf83dc38f/novak-djokovic-women-tennis.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Novak Djokovic Says Men’s Tennis Deserves More Money Than Women  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 21, 2016 12:10 PM UTC  Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 20 in Indian Wells, California. Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 20 in Indian Wells, California.Matthew Stockman—2016 Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 21, 2016 12:10 PM UTC Novak Djokovic said [men deserve more prize money than women](http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/21/novak-djokovic-indian-wells-equal-prize-money-tennis) in the tennis world because they draw more viewers to the stands. The [Serbian tennis star](http://time.com/4033100/novak-djokovic-us-open-roger-federer/)’s controversial comments on Sunday came after Raymond Moore, the chief executive of Indian Wells, insisted the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) “[rides on the coattails](http://time.com/4265546/tennis-indian-wells-ceo-women/?xid=homepage)” of the men and that champion male tennis players “carried this sport.” “Obviously it’s a very delicate situation. Women deserve respect and admiration for what they are doing,” Djokovic said, according to _The Guardian_. “I applaud them for that, I honestly do. They fought for what they deserve and they got it. On the other hand, I think that our men’s tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches.” “As long as it’s like that and there is data and stats available upon who attracts more attention, spectators, who sells more tickets and stuff like that, in relation to that it has to be fairly distributed,” he added, before saying women deserve respect because they have “hormones.” “Their bodies are much different to men’s bodies. They have to go through a lot of different things that we don’t have to go through. You know, the hormones and different stuff. We don’t need to go into details,” he said. \[[_The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/mar/21/novak-djokovic-indian-wells-equal-prize-money-tennis)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4265706/novak-djokovic-men-tennis-money/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4265706/novak-djokovic-men-tennis-money/"},"headline":"Novak Djokovic Says Men’s Tennis Deserves More Money Than Women","datePublished":"2016-03-21T12:10:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:23:13.982Z","description":"\"The stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches\"","url":"https://time.com/4265706/novak-djokovic-men-tennis-money/","keywords":["tennis"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd62a538532e248b0/69888bc2bc6cfcabf83dc38f/novak-djokovic-women-tennis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd62a538532e248b0/69888bc2bc6cfcabf83dc38f/novak-djokovic-women-tennis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Novak-Djokovic-women-tennis","caption":"Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 20 in Indian Wells, California.","creditText":"Matthew Stockman—2016 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/tennis/","name":"tennis"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4265706/novak-djokovic-men-tennis-money/","name":"Novak Djokovic Says Men’s Tennis Deserves More Money Than Women"}}]}] ```