Female tennis players still do not receive the credit they deserve for putting on top-quality matches, according to British number one Johanna Konta. A lot of women's matches this season "really kicked arse, they were outstanding", Wimbledon semi-finalist Konta told Reuters at the Wuhan Open in central China this week.

"More credit needs to be given. There is so much talk that the women's draw is so open. But it's open in the sense of there are so many amazing players. We have the depth."

Although women have been paid equal prize money at all four grand slams since 2007, they still lag behind the men on their own year-round tennis circuit. In 2017, the men's ATP World Tour had a total prize money pot of $197.7 million, compared with $139 million for the women's WTA Tour. While Novak Djokovic trails 23-times grand slam singles winner Serena Williams by 11 slam titles, the Serb is the sport's all-time prize money leader with $109.8 million in earnings. Williams has amassed $84.5 million in her long career. Although tennis is one of the few professional sports where female athletes can earn a good living, women's sports generate a minuscule 0.4 percent of all sports sponsorship and just 7 percent of all sports media coverage, according to London-based charity Women in Sport. Konta, the world number seven, was involved in one of the best matches of the year at Wimbledon, fighting back from a set down to beat the second-seeded Simona Halep of Romania to become the first British woman to reach the last four at the All England Club in 39 years.