Wimbledon has finally decided to follow the politically correct fashion of other Grand Slams. It too will award women players equal pay for unequal work. But surely any proud (and principled) feminist must take exception. After all, to get equal prize money, women should play the best of five sets like men do, or men should play the best of three sets like women do.
Tennis should follow the politically correct fashion of athletics and triathlons. For example, to earn equal prize money, women must run the same 26.2-mile marathon and complete the same chauvinistically named Iron Man, respectively.
(“Hail to 4-time Wimbledon Champ Venus Williams,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 9, 2007)
When the USTA, organizers of the U.S. Open, announced this week that, because of historic rain delays, the men’s quarters, semis and final will be played on three consecutive days, Rafael Nadal led the players in a veritable mutiny.
That’s not fair … that for sure is better to have the final on Sunday for them. But not for the players … because two days in a row playing tough matches is difficult… [P]layers are important part of the show… The problem is we don’t have enough power in these [kinds] of tournaments. That’s what [has] to change very soon.
(Tennis.com, September 8, 2011)
The players won a small victory by getting the USTA to move the men’s final from Sunday to Monday, giving both Nadal and Novak Djokovic a full day and a half to recover from their semifinal matches.
What was most interesting about this development, however, was that the women players were not complaining at all. This, despite the fact that the winner of the Serena Williams-Caroline Wozniacki semifinal late Saturday night was facing the prospect of playing in the women’s final less than 16 hours later.
Which brings me to the main point of this commentary:
As my opening quote indicates, the women players probably felt no need to complain because those who made it to the final rounds had played less than half the amount of tennis as their male counterparts. Therefore, their bodies were clearly less stressed.
As a case in point, while Serena got away with dispatching Wozniacki in two-straight sets (6-2, 6-4) to make it to the final, Novak Djokovic had to play five sets to overcome Roger Federer, (6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5). Even worse for Federer, if he had had the luxury of playing only the best of three instead of five sets, he would have dispatched Djokovic in straight sets too, having won the first two sets of their semifinal match.
Accordingly, I hereby reiterate my call for the women to either be required to play the best of five sets too, or be paid only three-fifths of the championship money, which this year is $1.8 million for the winner of both the men’s and women’s title. In other words, there should be equal pay for equal play.
Given this principled call on behalf of the men, it might seem ironic that I’m publishing this commentary hours before Nadal and Djokovic meet to decide the men’s championship. But here’s why:
I’ve been quite unabashed in expressing my preference for women’s tennis. Because, frankly, the women’s game is not only almost as powerful as the men’s (with Venus hitting 125 mph serves); their fierce baseline strokes during relatively long rallies are also far more titillating to watch than the one big serve that now characterizes men’s tennis.
(Hail to 4-time Wimbledon champ Venus Williams, The iPINIONS Journal, July 9, 2007)
In other words, I couldn’t care any less who wins the men’s final later today, especially since the already ousted Federer was my sentimental favorite to win it all. (To be fair, though, the men do seem to be having longer rallies these days, playing more like women from the baseline instead of deploying the traditional serve-and-volley strategy.)
That said, it was agonizing to watch Australian Samantha Stosur upset Serena in the women’s final in straight sets (6-2, 6-3). What made it especially so is that Serena hyped this match, ill advisedly, by invoking 9/11 – suggesting that she was on a mission to win it for the good ole USA.
Well, she not only lost … badly, but showed appalling sportsmanship by throwing a hissy fit at the beginning of the second set and then refusing to shake hands at the end of the match with the umpire, whom she accused of having it out for her.
For the record, the (female) umpire’s call, which sparked Serena’s outburst and subsequent I’m-gonna-kick-your-lily-white-ass-if-I-lose-this-match glares, was correct: Serena shouted after hitting what she thought was an outright winner even before Stosur began lunging to attempt a return. This is rather like Stosur shouting after Serena tossed her ball but before she hit her serve. So even though Stosur probably could not have returned that shot, the umpire stripped Serena of the point for “hindrance”, and rightly so.
But trust me folks, losing this point did not cost her the match. If anything it seemed to energize Serena; otherwise Stosur might’ve wiped her off the court 6-0 in that second set.
Which made the way she lost it during the changeover after the game in which this incident occurred all the more disrespectful, even pitiful. Here is some of what she said, courtesy of Gawker:
If you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way because you are out of control … you’re a hater and you’re unattractive inside… We’re in America the last time I checked… Really, don’t even look at me! I promise you, don’t look at me, ’cause I am not the one.
Frankly, as much as I enjoy watching Serena play I don’t like the uneasy feeling I get that she could go ghetto at any moment when things aren’t going her way; e.g., like she did two years ago at this same tournament when she threatened to “shove this fucking tennis ball” down the “fucking throat” of a female linesman for making what Serena thought was a bad call. (Her sister Venus never gave me cause to feel this way….)
It was comical when John McEnroe abused umpires and threw juvenile tantrums on the court. But it only feeds into stereotypes when Serena does so. Therefore, far from making America proud on this day, she was just a national (and racial) embarrassment.
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Hail, Venus…