[tennisbiz] Re: Equal Pay

From: Alan Chandronnait <chandrotennis_at_attbi.com>
Date: Tue 21 Jan 2003 22:19:45 -0500

<x-charset iso-8859-1>Hi Michael-

Thanks for asking for opinions! Concerning your question about equal pay
for men and women at the Slams.

I love tennis and there is almost nothing better than watching a great
tennis match. It could men, women, doubles, mixed doubles. Whatever!
Seeing the top pros in action is totally awesome!

My question is, "Why are the women not playing the best out of five sets at
the Slams?". We are talking about the top athletes in the world. I do not
understand why they are being treated differently in this respect. The men
train for the best out of five and I do not see any reason why the women
cannot also.

I think the women should get paid equally but I also feel that they should
be playing the best of five sets. Here is an example of equal pay for an
equal match format. I'll use the number two seeds in the men's and women's
singles of the 2003 Australian Open as examples. Venus Williams for the
women and Andre Agassi for the men. Both outstanding champions! Williams
spent just under 3 hours total on court in her first three matches and
Agassi spent 6 hours and 19 minutes for his first 3 matches. Agassi had to
spend over twice the amount of time that Williams did in her matches.

The main point is that men's and women's tennis is very exciting and in the
best of five sets format so many things can happen. An example is Roddick's
amazing comeback against Youzhny. If it were the best two out of three sets
Roddick would have been long gone and on a flight back to the US. Because
it was best of five he fought his way back into the match and is now
contending for the title.

The women players I am sure are happy for the equal pay but as a Joe Fan of
tennis I would like to see the women step up and play the best of five
format. I say, "Equal Pay For Equal Play!"


 
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Received on Wed Jan 22 2003 - 09:03:01 CST