'Fragile masculinity and misogyny': Italian Open SLAMMED as women's champ Simona Halep wins $11 LESS than Novak Djokovic

Italian Open organizers have been criticized after failing to fully close the gender pay gap after it was revealed that women's champion Simona Halep's winner's check was 10 Euros smaller than men's champ Novak Djokovic's prize.

The tournament saw Novak Djokovic claim the men's title, while Simona Halep won the women's tournament. But, despite both players capturing the titles, fans raged online after noticing a small, but significant difference in their prize money.

Djokovic banked 205,200 Euros ($241,350) for winning the men's title, but organizers paid women's champion Halep 10 Euros less, sparking some angry reactions from fans online for a perceived refusal to fully bring female players to full parity with their male counterparts.

The topic of gender parity in pay in tennis is an ongoing issue, with the sport's biggest events looking to push for equal prize money for male and female players, and while the difference in pay between the male and female winners in Rome was vastly reduced, the fact that organizers hadn't fully brought women's pay alongside the men's has prompted anger from some fans and reporters online.

The difference was highlighted by New York Times writer Ben Rothenburg, who stated that it was, "Utterly hilarious that Rome, long an unequal prize money event, came SO CLOSE to giving equal prize money to both the finalists and champions today, but then decided to reduce the women’s prize money by *10 EUROS* to keep the men on top, however slightly.

"The Rome women’s champ made 99.995 cents on the dollar of the men’s champ. Yes, the overall pay gap is a bigger deal, but the pettiness of the inequality on the top line is far more symbolic. That’s not “market forces” etc at all, that’s just fragile masculinity and misogyny."

The men's and women's tournament in Rome saw matches contested over three sets, meaning there was no difference in the playing conditions for the two competitions.

Last year's tournament saw champion Rafael Nadal win 958,055 Euros ($1,126,835), almost double the amount awarded to women's champion Karolina Pliskova received.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant the prize pool for both tournaments was reduced, but while the organizers brought the two champions' prizes closer together, the fact that they didn't go all the way to making them identical rankled with some fans.

"People who made a pay gap in cents are misogynists. Period," one individual said one fan on Twitter.

"I almost feel like - if they so badly need those 10 euros to feel better about their manhood - hell's bells give it to 'em," said another.

Despite requests, neither the Italian Open organizers, nor representatives from the ATP and WTA tours, have commented on the situation.