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
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!
Sinner vs Alcaraz the second time these two have played each other in a GS final, won’t be the last
Alcaraz serving fantastically well
As soon as I say that he’s not getting a first serve in
Just as well he’s doing well enough on his second serve
5th game, first game to go to deuce
And now Sinner has a break point
Which he takes
Sinner consolidates the break to 30 and leads 4-2
Alcaraz may be down in this set but he’s hit some great winners. Holds to bring it back to 4-3
Alcaraz putting a bit of pressure on Sinner's serve 15-30