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Tennis - No "Free Lunch," Ladies!

By Mert Ertunga
Friday, April 11th, 2003
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Let me go on record as saying that most ladies will not like what they read in this column. Let me also clarify that my opinions below are only valid for Grand Slams.

Apparently, French Open organizers decided to keep paying more prize money to men than the women. Wimbledon is the other Grand Slam that pays more to men then women. Australian Open and U.S. Open pay equal prize money to both men and women. Many women associated with WTA are in "shock and awe" regarding the behavior of French Open and Wimbledon organizers.

Let me go on record for the second time: they are completely "off the wall" for demanding equal pay! Not only is it outrageous from them to demand equal pay for less work, it is completely astonishing that men do not complain about not getting paid more in Melbourne and in New York.

Before you let your emotions dictate your reasoning and call me all kinds of names, put on your "objective" glasses and take a look at the facts.

What is the maximum amount of sets that women play in one match? Answer: three sets. Lo and behold, that happens to be the minimum number of sets that men have to play to advance each round. While many ladies matches end in less than an hour, most men's matches last around two hours and almost never go under an hour.

Don't take my word for it. Let's take a closer look at the Australian Open this year. And before we do that, may I remind the reader that I am actually picking the worst-case scenario to make my point, as you will soon see.

Andre Agassi and Serena Williams won the same amount of matches to become Australian Open champions in 2003. But that is where the similarities end.

Agassi won a total of 22 sets to win the title. And most experts will tell you without a shred of doubt that this was one of the easiest Grand Slam runs any champion has ever had. Agassi totally dominated the field, losing only one set en route to his eighth Grand Slam victory. Yet, he still did have to play 22 sets.

Serena Williams, by contrast, was tested several times during her run, taken to a final set in three of her matches. Her run to the title was by no means a walk in the park. Even then, guess how many sets she had to play to claim her fourth Grand Slam title in a row? 17! In other words, five sets less than Agassi.

Yet Agassi got paid the same amount of money as Serena. Actually, that is not exactly correct, either. Serena also played doubles and won, hence making clearly more money than Agassi. And before you start questioning why Mr. Agassi and a few other top male players do not play doubles, ask this question first: "how many of the top female players would play doubles if they were to play three-out-of-five-sets singles matches?" Not many. Steffi Graf couldn't even handle playing mixed doubles in 1999 in Wimbledon semifinals, leaving Johnny Mac completely exasperated because "it would take too much out of her for singles matches." And she was not kidding!

Oh, one more fact: it took Agassi over 12 hours to win all his matches and take the title, despite the fact that he had an easy run. How about his counterpart Serena? Try barely over seven hours! And that is despite being taken to the distance in three of her seven matches.

Let me remind the "emotional" reader again: the 2003 Australian Open example is actually one of the worst examples that I can use to prove my point. I could have easily pointed out to Goran Ivanisevic's run at Wimbledon 2001 or Sampras' run in Wimbledon 1995, where each won it straight sets only two out seven matches.

Or how about a more recent example? In 2002 U.S. Open, Serena needed 14 sets and 6.8 hours at the office to win the title and earn the same amount of money that Sampras did in 25 sets and 16.3 hours of work -- more than double the amount of time Serena put in.

Who really should be crying for justice here? The way it looks in this example, Pete had to earn his dinner and lunch while Serena earned her dinner, but had "free lunch."

Here is my advice to supporters of equal prize money: take a closer look at all other events on the WTA Circuit and their prize money versus the prize money offered at ATP events. Then you would see the true injustice to women at that level. Despite the amount of work being fairly equal in all WTA and ATP events outside Grand Slams, men earn almost 30% above women.

Perhaps these supporters have a valid point, but are too busy wasting their energy on the wrong platform.

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