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I think Sharapova and Serena Williams are/were on equitable cash, but they were outliers.
At least this is opening up a healthy debate. Do female tennis players want to play 3 set matches? Nicole Cooke was clear in her frustration at shorter track and road events for the women, it's all very 1930s isn't it? Protecting the frail female body from the rigours of endurance sport.
Jimmy_Fingers-
I think Sharapova and Serena Williams are/were on equitable cash, but they were outliers.
I don't know about earnings from advertising, perhaps there are vast differences there.
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At least this is opening up a healthy debate. Do female tennis players want to play 3 set matches? Nicole Cooke was clear in her frustration at shorter track and road events for the women, it's all very 1930s isn't it? Protecting the frail female body from the rigours of endurance sport.
I don't think it's this any more. I think it's got more to do with the attitude that women's sport brings in less of an audience/advertising/sponsorship etc then men's sport, so gets less screen time and thus shorter/less events.
Oliver Schick
Ste_S
I thought they often, if not always, get paid the same?
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/about/history/prizemoney.html
I also meant that tennis tournaments usually have both men's and women's competitions, and TV coverage is pretty equal.
I agree on the number of sets (aren't there some competitions in which men only play two sets for the win, too?), that's definitely similar to the shorter women's race distances in cycling. Someone will probably make a similar argument that women couldn't possibly play more, until they do, when there probably wouldn't be any problem with it. :)
I personally find tennis a bit boring, but I definitely prefer shorter matches, except for the one tennis match I can remember really enjoying, between Michael Westphal and Tomas Smid in the 1980s. That was very long and still very thrilling.