McLevin Park Tennis Club

mclevinpark@hotmail.com - 3 hard courts with lights

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Tennis Talk

Post your tennis topics and comments here.

Tennis Prize Money Inequality

The U.S. Open recently became the first major to pay equal amounts of prize money to the winners of the Men's and Women's draws. In attempting to create equality, many would argue they've actually created more inequality. One simple reason, women's matches are best of 3 sets, while at majors, men's matches are best of 5 sets. This creates a scenario where male players will potentially put in 40% more work into the same tournament and get paid the same amount of prize money as women players. Is that equality?

The counter-argument to that is of course that the presence of women players at such tournaments attracts just as many ticket buyers (if not more) as the male players. Thus, despite playing fewer sets, the ladies are earning their share of the money for the industry (not to mention the fact that they often spend just as much time on the court as the men, since they have all those never-ending rallies).