Tennis Random, Random

[Charlie02123]

He does know that his legs will be paid at the women's rate, right?

I am hearting you so hard right now.

[MeganFernandez]

He does know that his legs will be paid at the women's rate, right?

Post of the day!

[MeganFernandez]

I can't stand players like Simon when they're making that kind of argument.

Best of five is longer than best of three. Why stop there? Does that mean Nadal should've gotten less money than Ivanovic at the 2008 French Open because his final was shorter? And clearly, John Isner deserved a billion dollars for winning that first-round Wimbledon match in 2010.

Or if men's tennis is more popular, than should we give Roger Federer extra money for winning the first round because he's more popular than players like Stepanek or Kevin Anderson?

Or if we're basing it on number of hours... hey, guess what, I spend 8 hours every weekday - with no off-season - at my job, and I don't make as much as a tennis player!

Besides, if Simon wants more money, he can play at any of the many other men-only ATP tennis tournaments (more than there are in the WTA, with larger prize money, too). Oh wait, they complain about that, too!

Good points.

[Charlie02123]

France's Gilles Simon, who was just elected to the ATP Player Council, tells French radio he's opposed to men and women tennis players receiving equal prize money considering the current climate.

"I think that men’s tennis is really ahead of women’s tennis at this stage," he said. "Once more, the men spent surely twice as much time on court as the women at the French Open. We often talk about salary equality. I don’t think it’s something that works in sport. I think we are the only sport that has parity with the women in terms of prize money. Meanwhile, men’s tennis remains more attractive than women’s tennis at this moment."
Simon also told L’Equipe he was upset that the ATP tour agreed to make the tournament in Rome a joint event with the women without consulting the players directly.

"The year before, the women, for their final, they had 20 spectators," he said. "And so, in that case, you save them, but when you want a practice court, there aren’t any left.”

When told of Simon's comments, Marion Bartoli told Le Figaro that "he needs to get up earlier."

American teenager Sloane Stephens reacted differently, saying she does not care what Simon says because he was mean to her when she was a kid at the Sunrise Challenger in Florida.
"He hit me with a ball when I was ball kid for the first time. He hit me right in my chest because he lost a point and set he turned around and slammed the ball and it hit me," Stephens told a small group of U.S. reporters. "Whatever he says, that means nothing to me. We had discussion about it on the court last year because he was trying to kick me off the practice court in Estoril and I'm like dude you don't have this court. His coach was nice and he asked me, 'Why don't you like him?' and I said because when I was 10 he hit me with the ball and he didn't even say sorry and kind of walked off. So I was like, 'I don't like him."

Samantha Stosur said that the women deserve equal earnings.
"I think people come out and watch us play because they want to watch us play. I think there are a bunch of men's matches that go five that are pretty boring to watch, as well. It's not like a best-of-five match is better than a best-of-three."
Simon added: “Am I going to incur the wrath of feminist organizations? I don’t care."

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templ...8414&zoneid=25

[Drop-shot]

And he looked so tame with his juvenile smile and frail body...

[JTContinental]

I love Sloane Stephens. I think she's becoming my heir apparent to Venus.

[Scotty]

I love Sloane Stephens. I think she's becoming my heir apparent to Venus.

We may need to start Sloane Rangers.

[Jessie181]

oh man, I love Sloane's response!

[tobiasfunke]

Why does sexism in the game always pop up during Wimbledon? Every year it seems...

[Drop-shot]

Why does sexism in the game always pop up during Wimbledon? Every year it seems...

AELTC tradition?

[mysterX]

Why does sexism in the game always pop up during Wimbledon? Every year it seems...

UK Journalists maybe, trying to outdo each other for a "scoop"?

[MeganFernandez]

I wrote about Simon for Tennis.com's Spin column today. My friend writes the Spin and let me guest-blog. Gonna get tons of Twitter hate, i'm sure!

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templ...8482&zoneid=32

[Scotty]

I wrote about Simon for Tennis.com's Spin column today. My friend writes the Spin and let me guest-blog. Gonna get tons of Twitter hate, i'm sure!

http://www.tennis.com/articles/templ...8482&zoneid=32

thanks for sharing, Megan. I really enjoyed reading that.

[MeganFernandez]

thanks for sharing, Megan. I really enjoyed reading that.

Oh thanks! Needed that, becaus ei I dare read the comments or check my twitter feed, i'm sure it will not be kind.

The ugly truth that has come out the last 24 hours has kinda socked me in the gut, which I didnt even try to get into in the column - no room. I really have been naive about the universal support of this issue. Seriously naive. I'd only had Wertheim's enlightened and reasoned perspective, and I just assumed he spoke for the vox
populi, but I was wrong. The opposition to equal prize money is widespread, which is even more distrubing when you consider that there's no chance of wver walking it back. Anyone who continues to argue against it in the face of absolute futility must feel very strongly about it.

[Edmond Dantès]

After Simon's result today, it would appear that karma is an angry WTA player with a 12 inch strap on

UK Journalists maybe, trying to outdo each other for a "scoop"?

In this case, it looks like Simon started it himself when talking to the French media. But yeah, the UK press are master stirrers so they'll happily run with it (though to be fair, the international tennis specific media have gone big on it too).

Why does sexism in the game always pop up during Wimbledon? Every year it seems...

Just one aspect, but the Wimbledon scheduling policy for Centre and Court 1 probably leads to questions of fairness and the women being treated less well than the men.

More generally, Wimbledon is a massive event in the UK (on the front page of newspapers, several pages of coverage inside, it's all over the TV etc). And the media people sent to cover it go beyond just tennis journalists.

So I would think there's just a lot more noise around this tournament than any other. Any little issue, perceived issue, idiotic question/answer etc can get exaggerated.