Tennis Thread

[Letters]

Yep.
6-0, 6-0.
Didn’t even take an hour.
I’d be wanting my money back.

[Mac76]

What a wipeout

[Letters]

It’s the only ladies’ game I’ve watched all tournament. Shame it was probably the worst one in the entire fortnight

[The Wengerbabies]

But equal pay. What a joke.

[Letters]

But equal pay. What a joke.

This was a particularly poor final but that is unusual.
When the serve volley game was rife in the men’a game I actually preferred the women’s game. Now I think the men’s is better.

But the only relevant thing is the level of interest. If the ticket prices are the same and the sponsorship deals are too then I have no issue with them getting equal pay. There’s the 3 sets vs 5 argument but I don’t buy that. You can’t work out any sensible hourly rate for top sportsmen or women.

[Mac76]

I actually do think the 3 vs 5 sets thing is a factor, it has to be

Personally I'd be happy to see the men's matches be best of 3, it's very rare you get a turnaround if someone's two sets down

[Letters]

I actually do think the 3 vs 5 sets thing is a factor, it has to be

Personally I'd be happy to see the men's matches be best of 3, it's very rare you get a turnaround if someone's two sets down

It probably is the best argument I guess.
The reason I don’t think it’s that strong is sportsmen and women at this level don’t get paid based on how long they play for and so how long the crowd are entertained for. With sports like tennis that is an unknown quantity anyway. Yesterday’s debacle lasted less than an hour, a better match could last hours.
Ultimately what it comes down to is how much money the sport generates. Women footballers don’t get paid less than men because they’re not as good. The physical differences mean that will always be so. They get paid less because they aren’t selling out 60,000 seater stadiums at sky high ticket prices. Broadcasters aren’t paying multi billion dollar deals for the TV rights. And so on.
If and when the level of interest is the same - and therefore the money generated is the same - then they can get the big bucks. But it isn’t, so it isn’t.

With tennis though the women’s game has always been a lot closer to the men’s in terms of interest level. We all know Billie Jean King, Navaratalova, Graff, etc. I couldn’t name a single women’s footballer from before a few years ago. I couldn’t name that many now!