Former player Nikolay Davydenko sparked the equal pay debate when he was asked in an interview about his stance on the subject. He thinks female players should earn equal prize money only in 250 or 500 events but not in Grand Slams as male players have to play best-of-five sets.

All four Grand Slam tournaments give equal prize money to men and women players. The former World No.3, who earned $16,186,480 in his tennis career, thinks Serena Williams has 23 Grand Slam singles titles just because she did not have to play five-set matches.

Davydenko’s comments did not go down well with the fans as they argued that female players work hard just as much as male players as their body allows. Some schooled him for his comments on Williams, saying he perhaps would have won Majors had he worked harder like her, while others claimed he didn’t attract the crowd like some women did so he should’ve earned less.

In that same interview, Nikolay Davydenko was asked about the doping controversy around Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek. Davydenko downplayed arguments that a small dose of a drug enhances players’ performances.

He also backed Sinner for his performances, criticizing Nick Kyrgios for his claims that Sinner gave his best this season just because he consumed anabolic steroid clostebol.

Since the report of Sinner and Swiatek’s cases was published, Kyrgios, who has been on the sidelines for almost two years, has been blaming the two top players for failing the drug test. Kyrgios is set to be back on tour next year at the Brisbane International before participating in the Australian Open.

If the Aussie doesn’t deal with any more injury problems, he could face Sinner in the near future and the tennis world is waiting for that contest.