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A Hoad off my mind with KM Group reporter Alex Hoad - Why male tennis players should earn more than women.
16:00, 22 March 2016
updated: 16:11, 22 March 2016
Should women be paid the same amount for doing the same job as men? Of course they should.
If Alexandra Hoad was getting something off her mind on this page, then she should get paid the exact same as I am. It's only right.
Should women be paid the same amount as men for playing tennis, however? Absobloominlutely not.
Let me put this straight out there. This is nothing to do with the five sets versus three sets argument, though, of course, there is no way on earth that female players should be paid the same amount for doing between a third and two-fifths less work at Grand Slams.
This is also not about the physical limitations or otherwise of female players either. I have zero doubt that Serena or Victoria Azarenka or... Heather Watson... could play five sets of tennis. Of course they could, they’re supreme physical specimens.
The problem is that nobody wants to watch five sets of women’s tennis. A symptom of which is that it took me a good 10 seconds of thinking time before coming up with two players who didn’t have the surname Williams.
Women’s tennis is, frankly, a bit of a shambles. Even more so after Sharapovagate.
I’ve seen it said that it’s uncompetitive but I’m not sure that’s right. Of the 15 LTA tournaments so far this year, there have been 13 different winners. To me that’s too competitive and all because because the standard is so low.
Every set seems to be one-sided, matches last less than an hour, some opponents barely muster a game.
Ray Moore got himself in hot water and lost his job as Indian Wells Tennis Garden Chief Exec this week for claiming that women players ‘ride on the coat-tails’ of the men’s game.
World No.1 and one of the all-time greats in the making, Novak Djokovic then lost an army of female fans by claiming that ‘maybe men should be awarded more’ as the men’s game attracts more spectators and TV viewers and ergo sponsorship money, too.
Much like his backhand down the line, Djokovic is bang on the money. If you generate more revenue, you should recoup more revenue. That's the free market in action. Saying women should receive equal pay for tournaments like Indian Wells is its own form of sexism.
Of course, at events where punters buy tickets to see matches involving both sexes, it’s hard to get everyone to say who they most want to watch and divvy the profits out accordingly.
However, when you have comparable tournaments like Queen’s and Eastbourne, where the levels of interest, prices and TV coverage, differ so vastly, then it’s a pretty good indicator of the lay of the land.
Look around the world. Women play pro golf. Do as many people go trooping round the course with the top players as they do at the men’s game? Of course not.
What about football? We are growing ever more passionate about women’s football in this country and the crowds the national team get are amazing. But do as many people watch the women’s Champions League in person or on TV as the men’s?
No. Why? Because the quality is so inferior it’s almost not worth comparing.
So fire away with your allegations of sexism, I am ready for them. I’m not remotely sexist, I’m a huge advocate of female sport. I do truly believe that This Girl Can... but when it comes to tennis, it’s more a case of These Girls Can Do Better.