Women winning prize money argument, says Venus

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) Wimbledon champion Venus Williams believes women's tennis is winning its battle for equal prize money at grand slam tournaments.

The WTA Tour has mounted a concerted campaign to force grand slam organisers to address the issue and Wimbledon is now the only one of the four major tournaments to give the women's champion less than the men's champion.

''We're really willing to keep working hard toward the goal,'' Williams told a news conference at the All England Club today.

''This has been our most productive year as far as really getting the message out there, really being proactive.

''We need people to recognise something that, in this modern age and especially at a tournament like this, should really not be in existence.

''A lot of people really, really understand what we're talking about.'' This year's men's champion at the grasscourt grand slam, which starts tomorrow, will receive 655,000 pounds (1.2 million dollar), compared to 630,000 pounds for the women's champion.

The French Open gave both its men's and women's singles winners the same prize money for the first time this year. Women and men already received equal prize money at both the US Open and the Australian Open.

Williams, who has career earnings in excess of 16 million dollar, said the issue was equality, not cash.

''For us, it's not about earning more money or becoming any more well off. It's really about an equality issue, about being created as equals, as human beings, despite sex.

''We represent women around the world. We're the premiere sport for women. We would like to empower women around the world by showing that we are willing to fight for equality.'' FEDERER UNMOVED Martina Navratilova, one of the leading campaigners on the issue, has suggested women players would be happy to play best-of-five-set matches like the men but Venus said that was not the right approach.

''My reaction to that is that's really not the platform that the women stand on. We don't really want to get into a discussion on number of sets played and things like that.

''What we feel is that we're equal as human beings, so we would like to be treated equally.'' Williams refused even to discuss the possibility of a strike by women's players.

When asked about equal prize money, men's defending champion Roger Federer wondered what all the fuss was about.

''There is a difference?'' the Swiss asked. ''A small one. I don't think as players, we pay too much attention if now it's 20,000 pounds difference if you win the title.

''If you make 420,000 or 400, I don't think it really makes a lot of difference for us. It's a lot of money.

''Look, equal prize money or not, for me it doesn't matter.'' REUTERS PDS RAI1904