Italian tennis player Alberta Brianti flew home from Wimbledon with £11,250 in her pocket following a second-round exit to Agnieszka Radwanska.

John Isner also got that amount for going out at the same stage of the men’s competition.

Brianti won only two games in a nondescript encounter which saw just one ace and a bagful of unforced errors. It lasted a little over an hour.

Isner fared little better in three one-sided sets. But he had a bit of an excuse.

His opening match with Nicolas Mahut had gone a little bit longer than Brianti’s. Well, ten hours more to be exact.

Both players clobbered a century of aces – 23rd seeded American Isner setting the new record at an incredible 112 – and the final set went to 138 games.

The eight-hour marathon decider, which went through an entire day’s play without being resolved, was a freak. Nothing will ever come close in the future.

But when the dust settles and the shattered players get their breath back, it does once again highlight the nonsense decision to bring women’s pay at Wimbledon into line with the men.

How can it possibly be right when they play two fewer sets anyway?

In Brianti’s case it was 169 games fewer – Venus Williams won’t play that many going right through the tournament.

Yet the second-round loser earned exactly the same dosh as Isner.

We may live in an age of equality but this is anything but.