Doha player gift controversy is not just about an iPhone or a water bottle, WTA players say

Amanda Anisimova took home the biggest title of her career by winning the WTA 1000 Qatar TotalEnergies Open over the weekend, but a short remark by one of the players beaten in the doubles final opened up a much longer conversation about gender equality at the longtime tour stop.

After Jiang Xinyu and Wu Fang-Hsien lost to Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in Saturday's doubles final, Wu spoke on behalf of the beaten pair. Though she spoke glowingly about an "amazing tournament" that provides "all the best stuff," there was one thing missing from the team's first WTA 1000 final experience.

“Last year we had the player gifts," she said, "but I don't know why this year, they don’t have it."

In the moment, Wu's comment was treated flippantly during the trophy ceremony's run of show. But Ellen Perez, a member of the WTA Players' Council, opened up a discussion on social media that was much more serious.

Perez provided context to Wu's remark in a post to her account on X, formerly Twitter, by saying that the players who competed at the event were gifted a water bottle—after previously receiving a bracelet last year.

"I guess that even got too much to ask for," Perez wrote. She also claimed that the men who compete in Qatar's ATP 500 event, a less prestigious tournament in the tour hierarchy, receive iPhones "every year".

It wasn't the first time that broader inequity between the tennis tours has been pointed out through a seemingly-superficial symbol. Two years ago in Madrid, Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka received two very different-sized birthday cakes by tournament organizers of the combined ATP and WTA 1000-level event, and an insensitive tweet by tournament director Feliciano Lopez prompted more criticism. The controversy culminated with Victoria Azarenka, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff not being permitted to speak after the doubles final, and the tournament eventually apologized.

But in Doha, the WTA's 1000 event outranks the ATP 500 event in prestige, making the optics particularly awkward, Perez argued.

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"My problem isn’t the gift; it’s the disparity especially given the level of events," Perez later added. "I never think I deserve a gift but if you set the men’s standard high in a lower event, it’s hard to not feel hard done by for the women."

German Eva Lys, who recently reached the fourth round of the Australian Open, stepped up to echo Perez's overall sentiments this time around.

"Everyone who thinks it's about gifts, it's not," she wrote. "It's about unequal treatment."

But the WTA players weren't the only ones unhappy with a slight from Doha tournament organizers. Also over the weekend, 2022 Doha champion Nikoloz Basilashvili vowed he 'will never return to compete [in Qatar] again" after being denied a wild card to either qualifying or the main draw. The Georgian, who also reached the final in 2021, is currently ranked No. 148, and missed out on direct acceptance to the qualifying draw by one spot.

“I’m used to not getting anything the easy way, but this one hurts," the former world No. 16 wrote on his Instagram story.

The 32-year-old said he was "heartbroken" to miss the event before making his vow.

“I understand that money and sponsors play a role, but above all is common sense,” he continued. “Qatar, you’ve given me incredible moments and memories that I’ll keep forever. But I promise this–I will never return to compete here again in my professional career.”