Should women tennis players be paid as much as the men?

Question

I do'nt think they should simply because they are not as good.(Div 2 players are n't paid as much as premier league players).Why not scrap the sex discrimination and make Wimbledon an open tournament,combine the prize money and whoever wins ,male or female gets the money.Oh no ! the women would n't go for that because no woman would get through to the second round.The argument that they play their peers just like men do does n't hold water either...otherwise the over 50's and under 18's should be paid the same.Face it ladies...you can't play as well so you do n't deserve the same money...if you think you are...try putting say Venus Williams v Roger Federer. I'm not as good a boxer as Naseem Hamed and so would'nt expect to be paid as much.
Oh one more point...men play 5 sets women only 3...another reason. I'll concede...women are much nicer to look at though.

Answer 1

unfortunatly not. what the tennis people want to do is hold an open tournament just to see how close the men and the women are in playing levels.
now all you ladys out there are going to jump down my throat but i think venus and serenna (the most physically adept women players) would even struggle to beat the mighty tiger tim never mind an andy ruddock style player. they would be blown out of the water.
if they proved me wrong i'd eat my hat.

Answer 2

I think they do a good job in this sport. Men are better do to strength and size I doubt the woman would do as bad as some think though they fair well in Mixed Doubles where you have one of each. I do prefer watching womans tennis a little more maybe the money should reflect that. I think its designed to be a male sport as they get all the prime time. They do play longer sets and such and have better endurance but both games are entertaining its all about the packaging of it. Its designed to showcase the men so thats why its that way. I want to see the old Tennis Pro leauge come back does any one remember that in SA it was the Raquets. Why is that no longer a leauge

Answer 3

But they do get paid the same. Wimbledon is the only grand slam not to give equal prize money to men and women. All the other grand slams have revised their prizes. And it's not like women aren't as good as men, many women are better. But you must consider the differences in muscles, height, weight, etc. Also, women's tennis is very different from men's tennis. Women tend to hit flatter with more unforced errors and less winners. Men hit heavy topspin, make less errors, more winners, and win way more point off their serves. There's a difference between playing Div 2 league and not getting paid as much as Div 1, and women not being paid as much as men. Div 2 is obviously not a good as Div 1, so they shouldn't expect to get paid as much. Gender is different, because they don't compete with each other. If Roger Federer was a women, some other women players could probably beat him. It doesn't really matter anyways though because men and women are now paid the same prize money in all Grand Slams but Wimbledon.

Answer 4

No, only because you have to understand where part of the money comes from. More people go to see the mens' events than the womens'- meaning they generate more revenue, so the prize pool is greater. True, the majors sell tickets that let you see both events early on, but the last 2 rounds are sold either the mens' or womens' matches. I know when I went to the US Open Finals in 05 that the mens' match was more expensive then the womens'.

Answer 5

If they play matches that are the same length, I definitely think they should be paid the same. The problem is that at the grand slams, they play best of 3 set matches whereas the men play best of 5 - as someone else said, you wouldn't expect to do a normal job and be paid the same for working fewer hours.

Answer 6

The problem is most if not all of the women pros would never go for that. The quality is inferior typically in terms of their matches. The ratio of winners&aces to unforcederrors&double faults tends to be lower in women's matches than men's matches. If you don't believe me, check out the stats for the four men's Grand Slam singles finals and the four women's Grand Slam singles final for 2006. Women should be paid as much as men if they are of comparable quality for the skill they are getting paid for. They should get paid more if they are better, or the demand for them is higher. Women's tennis gets higher TV ratings, mainly because the interest in that sport is driven by raging male hormones, more than women paying attention. It's a fact that a higher percentage of males are interested in sports as a participant, coach, official, spectator, journalist or some other capacity than women. If you want to see why women shouldn't be paid as much as men in my opinion, please click on the link I have posted. Thank you. ellegrl, your comments
are not true. A journeyman ranked chainsmoking male player has already beaten the Williams sisters, when the Williams sisters were at or near the top of the womens' rankings.
http://www.stevegtennis.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2464&sid=d2087578f5a8e14f006b057b0c827a47
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/williams/timeline2/

Answer 7

No dude...of course a male player would beat the women...Men are by genetics much stronger than women physically. But just because women can't compete with men I don't see why women shouldn't receive equal prizemoney...

It's a shame that the European's(French and Wimbly) cannot address equality problems like their peers who have woken up and realized that women's tennis, though not as long(3sets to 5)...has just as much entertainment value than men's tennis, perhaps even more...

Answer 8

i agree with what you're saying.. but speaking in straight dollar amounts? they should get paid more than they do now.. it's not a sex discrimination thing, it's just that the sponsors for the tournaments don't pay as much for women's as they do for men's. 100% of prize money comes from sponsorship.. maybe the marketing people for the WTA need to step it up.

Answer 9

I can see where you are coming from guys play 5 matches max and women 3 max. So yeah...in that point I agree with you.
Nothing to do with equality it is everything to do with logic, if you spend more hours working on the court you should get paid more.
But on a lighter note, Venus could so take on Federer she's so strong.
Why don't they make women's matches longer like the men or make the men's matches shorter like the women? That's equality everything relative.

Plus women would always win because a we're smarter (proven) and b guys would get distracted by perving on the woman playing them. :)

Answer 10

Understand your point, but I think there have been many years where women's tennis proved much more interesting and crowd pleasing than men's. Granted, besides Maria Sharapova at the moment, that may not be the case any longer. I would say, tournament wise, for grand slams at least, they should get the same pay.