World number one Novak Djokovic believes men should be awarded more prize money than women following a row sparked by comments from Indian Wells chief Raymond Moore.

Speaking ahead of the BNP Paribas final between Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams, Moore said the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) was a “lucky organisation” which “rides on the coat-tails” of the men.

Seeming to overlook the 21 grand slams won by Serena Williams – more than the 17 won by Roger Federer and 14 by Rafael Nadal – Moore added: “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank god that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport. They really have.”

Moore later apologised for his comments that were in “poor taste and erroneous” but the damage had been done by then and Djokovic added fuel to the fire.

Speaking after his straight-sets win over Milos Raonic in the men’s final , the Serb said women deserve the money they get, but men should fight for more because their game attracts more viewers.

He said: “Women deserve respect for what they are doing. You know, equal prize money was the main subject of the tennis world in the last seven, eight years.

“I have been through that process as well so I understand how much power and energy WTA and all the advocates for equal prize money have invested in order to reach that.

“On the other hand I think that our men’s tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why maybe we should get awarded more. Women should fight for what they think they deserve and we should fight for what we think we deserve.

“As long as it’s like that and there is data and stats available upon who attracts more attention, spectators, who sells more tickets and stuff like that, in relation to that it has to be fairly distributed.”

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