I am all for equal pay for equal work. There was an article in sports illustrated this month:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/
He is basically complaining about how woman get paid less money if they win a championship than men do for the exact same tournament. He also argues that most people find Womans tennis more interesting. I have tremendous problems with both of these statements.
He finds Womans tennis more interesting for the simple fact that he has more fellow americans in the womans draw than the men, fine, I am patritic as well. Just don’t put it under the ruse of it being more interesting Tennis. I can imagine that Spanish people find Men’s more interesting because there is a buttload of Spaniards (and good ones) in the Mens draw, and more so than in the womans. Aussies have the same problem, more good men than woman. Americans have more good woman than men. It’s just how it goes. He simply can’t however provide an opinion that clearly covers one country and say that it applies to the entire world.
He talks about Ace and Towel tennis on the mens side. Have you SEEN Patrick Rafter, Guga and Andre Agassi play? They all play from the baseline. TONS OF RALLY’s. Of course guys like Ivanisavic, Dent, Sampras, and Phillipousis play serve and volley. YOu can’t expect the rallys to be very long.
The same goes for the woman, you have the Williams sisters playing serve and volley (for the most part), and Hingis playing from the baseline. Woman dont generally hit as hard so more WILL play from the baseline and not put as much emphasis on the serve.
To close on that question, whether womans or more intersting than mens, it depends on who’s playing. I personally love serving and vollying. Especially if one type is playing the other, you get the incredible passing shots combined with precision serves travelling faster than sports cars. That’s just my opinion, and no more or less relevant than his (Reilly’s).
As far as woman getting paid less then men…THEY PLAY LESS THAN MEN. They play best 2 out of 3 sets whereas men play best 3 out of 5. I think it’s assanine to think that woman can’t handle the extra two sets but that is how it’s set up, and until they petition to play as much, they can’t expect to be PAID as much.
Say you have a part-time worker and a FUll time worker. The part-time worker does an exceptional job, at least as good as the Full time worker. You simply can’t expect the Part time worker to get paid more or even as much as the full time worker.
I suppose I should have sworn more to make this a quality rant but I really don’t dislike Reilly, just got annoyed by this particular column. (and I know my grammer stinks)
