Do they get the same prize money as the men? Haven't kept up with this I'm afraid. If they do it's because they have the negotiating strength to have it, good for them, and it must make economic sense for the game as well. Saw a bit of this final, the only thing that wound me up was the commentators constantly referring to Williams as 'Serena' and to her opponent by her surname ( sorry can't spell it without looking it up). Smacked of favoritism.
I remember similar comments going around about Lindsay Davenport when she won it(big built, fast server yada yada), but I doubt the race card was brought up then. Ludicrous bringing colour into it at all.
It's nothing to do with colour. It's just boring that she's the size of a Ford Focus and can power through every time. To be paid the same as the blokes is of course ludicrous and they are able to play doubles too so presumably make more.
Brix is absolutely spot on. It's nothing to do with playing the race card at all. Not all racism is overt, much of it is sub-conscious. As Brixton said it is the ONLY variable. Davenport may have been subjected to the same thing albeit less excessively but she's never been accused of match fixing or anything else. It's a clear sign of racial oppression and racialised stereotypes no different to what Jim Smith said at Derby. People that use the excuse "it's because they win it every year", well sorry but I don't buy that. Nobody got bored of Federer winning it and he to this day is a crowd favourite at Wimbledon. Even John McEnroe has often hinted at the anti-Williams sister bias in the crowd. It's quite disgusting IMO.
I fell out with tennis when the crash-bang era came in. People like Philippoussis and Goran Ivanisevic, who had such massive services that game after game were won to love. Federer is great to watch on grass because of his versatility. Long rallies and moves to the net please punters. Generally, baseline and power stuff is not so interesting.
You just have to look at the matches Federer v Nadal, Nadal v Djokovic and Djokovic v Federer for tennis at it's absolute best, the women's game pales into insignificance in comparison...
She had such an easy match, she's back for another final! A man could not do that, so it's not equality.
The big difference between football and tennis is that in football errors make a game more exciting but in tennis errors just make the game awful. When you look at the Men they make far fewer mistakes than the Women, the standard is ridiculously high. Maran Cilic played for 5 and a half hours in the same round Radwanska (I think it was) played for 57 minutes. I'm not sexist in any way but how can that possibly warrant the same prize money?
Whenever there is a discussion about women's tennis, serena Williams should never be included in that discussion.
Serena let me down today because i had her to win in 2 not 3. But for gamblers, womens tennis is easy profits because it is so predictable. I love the game but it shows the lack of depth in womens tennis that she can come back from injury a stone overweight and win at a canter against an opponent shaking with nerves who is a potential world no 1. But tomorrows match is intriguing. Although i think Murray has every chance i have gone for value on Federer. He is 1-2 to win outright but you can get 5-2 on him to win by 3 sets to 0,11-4 to win by 3 sets to 1 and 11-2 for him to win by 3 sets to 2 so i have backed all those options.. so the closer it is the more money i make.. unless Murray wins, which i think is also possible.. the Williams sisters normally earn more than the men because they win the singles and half an hour later they go and clean up on the doubles.. which is a bit of a joke really, but then Billie Jean King started all that equality stuff, and i used to knock up with her at the Hogarth Club while she was preparing for Wimbledon in the early 1980's and she used to thrash me..
Also. i think it has to be taken into account that tennis is still predomanently played by white, midle class british families. Go to your local tennis club (if you can find one-In greenford on ravenor pk road) and see how many black players are members there? i had a friend who played at the grenford one and i can assure you, i was not made to feel welcome there. Its similar to how golf was pre tiger & skiing used to be.......
