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Marijan Murat / DPA
Tennis player Andrea Petkovic complains about the unequal treatment of women and men in her sport.
"Symbolically we have equality, in fact not yet," said the 33-year-old in an interview with the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
"We get the same prize money at the four biggest tournaments of the year, the Grand Slams - and that is always attached to us as a flaw," said the 33-year-old.
"Because 90 percent of people only see tennis in connection with the Grand Slams and then think: The men play a maximum of five sets, that is up to five hours, the women a maximum of three - that's unfair."
The crux of the matter is that the rest of the tennis tour is "90 percent of the year".
And apart from the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, women have significantly fewer tournaments and earn significantly less than men.
"That means that the women's WTA tour is not equal to the men's ATP tour."
After all, Petkovic continues: Something has changed in terms of body image: "Even athletic women can be considered beautiful today because they stand for fitness."
Petkovic wants to continue her tennis career - even if she has already built up a second mainstay as a book author and TV presenter.
"This year I only played one official match, 3-6, 3-6, first round of the French Open," said Petkovic: "It was okay for me because I could keep one foot in the life after that. But now I already have a lot of motivation to start real training again in November and to play a few tournaments. "
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