World No.1 Novak Djokovic has questioned equal prize money in tennis, suggesting men deserve to be paid more than women.
Djokovic was speaking after he claimed victory in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells and defended the use of statistics to determine the purse at joint events.
Earlier on Sunday, the event's CEO Raymond Wells had claimed the WTA rode "on the coattails of the men".
Serb Djokovic described those comments as "not politically correct", however, while he praised the women's game for its efforts on equal pay he said that men "should fight for more".
"Obviously it's a very delicate situation," he said. "Women deserve respect and admiration for what they are doing. You know, equal prize money was the main subject of the tennis world in the last seven, eight years.
"I have been through that process as well so I understand how much power and energy WTA and all the advocates for equal prize money have invested in order to reach that.
"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.
"I think that's one of the reasons why maybe we should get awarded more. Women should fight for what they think they deserve and we should fight for what we think we deserve.
"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."
