Equal Prize Money Debate Rages – Federer, Sharapova, Simon, Murray Give Input

The ATP happily touted its new Player Council after elections were held last weekend, but they may not be pleased anymore after France ‘s Gilles Simon, who was just elected to the council, created a firestorm at Wimbledon when he said he was opposed to men and women players receiving equal prize money.

Simon was selected to four spots held for player ranked No’s 1-25 along with Roger Federer, Kevin Anderson and Jarrko Nieminen.

“I think that men’s tennis is really ahead of women’s tennis at this stage,” Simon said.

“Once more, the men spent surely twice as much time on court as the women at the French Open. We often talk about salary equality. I don’t think it’s something that works in sport. I think we are the only sport that has parity with the women in terms of prize money. Meanwhile, men’s tennis remains more attractive than women’s tennis at this moment.”

The women have reacted strongly, with Samantha Stosur saying that they deserve equal pay and that time on court doesn’t matter.

“I think people come out and watch us play because they want to watch us play. I think there are a bunch of men’s matches that go five that are pretty boring to watch, as well. It’s not like a best-of-five match is better than a best-of-three.”

Former Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic added, “We are different physiques I think we earn our money. I mean, I was two and a half hours out there today.”

While Simon was out on front in making that statement, ATP sources told Daily Tennis that he’s not the only player who thinks that way, but many of the men don’t want to be perceived as being sexist so they wont say so publicly.

Federer isn’t pleased to be brought into the brouhaha. “Is this the first time I’ve heard this or is this an ongoing subject for years?” he asked. “I don’t know what to tell you. I hope it doesn’t become a big issue during Wimbledon . It’s obviously a debate that’s out there ever since I guess the Slams have made equal prize money. There’s nothing you can do anyway about it. It’s just a matter of who believes what, and then that is an endless debate. So whatever you believe.”

Another contentious issue in the men’s locker room is a lack of space at the numerous combined events. Six of the nine Masters Series are now combined, and while sites like Indian Wells and Cincinatti seem to have enough courts to accommodate the players, others such as Madrid and Rome do not.

That also set Simon off, as did the women getting paid the same at the Masers Series when they don’t draw as well.

Simon told L’Equipe he was upset that ATP agreed to make the tournament in Rome a joint event with the women without consulting the players directly.

“The year before, the women, for their final, they had 20 spectators,” he said. “And so, in that case, you save them, but when you want a practice court, there aren’t any left.”

American teenager Sloane Stephens had trouble with Simon on a practice court in Estoril and was dismissive about his comments over equal prize money, partly because he was mean to her when she was a kid at the Sunrise Challenger in Florida .

“He hit me with a ball when I was ball kid for the first time. He hit me right in my chest because he lost a point and set he turned around and slammed the ball and it hit me,” Stephens told a small group of U.S. reporters. “Whatever he says, that means nothing to me. We had discussion about it on the court last year because he was trying to kick me off the practice court in Estoril and I’m like dude you don’t have this court. His coach was nice and he asked me, ‘Why don’t you like him?’ and I said because when I was 10 he hit me with the ball and he didn’t even say sorry and kind of walked off. So I was like, ‘I don’t like him.”

No. 1 Maria Sharapova then weighed in talking about how long women have fought for equal prize money. “We’re all really proud of it, and we continue to build the sport and make it bigger,” she said, “I’m sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his.”

Serena Williams got a big kick out of Sharapova’s last comment and said: “Definitely a lot more people are watching Maria than Simon. She’s way hotter than he is,” Serena said. “Women’s tennis is really awesome. I started playing tennis at two years old. I’m sure he started when he was two years old, as well. I worked just as hard as he did. I’m sure he continues to work hard as I work hard, as well as everyone that’s on a professional level. We are all very professional and all work hard. With that being said, everybody is entitled to his opinion.”

Later, Simon tried to clarify his comments and said his argument is largely economic as more fans are willing to pay higher ticket prices for the men than the women.

“My point of view was just about the entertainment,” he said. ” If you just watch how it is working in every other, sport, but even for the singers, you’re just paid by the public directly. My point was that I have the feeling that men’s tennis is actually more interesting than women’s tennis. As in any business or anything, you just have to be paid just about that. It’s not because we play five sets and they are playing three. … . It’s not about me, one player, or another one. Maria is more famous than me. She deserves to win more money than me. But just check the price of the ticket from the men’s final and the woman’s final.”

Simon added that every man in the Wimbledon draw supports his statement and added that he does support equal rights for women, but said that it doesn’t apply when it comes to the economic choices of fans and how that effects pay checks.

” It has nothing to do with men and women. In life in general, of course, I’m for [equal pay. Tomorrow if women’s tennis is more interesting than men’s tennis, if the price of the woman’s final is higher than the price of the men’s final, they will deserve to win more money than us. That’s just the way it works.”

Andy Murray then backed Simon, saying that there are a lot of issues the men agree on including ” at the French Open Sara Errani who made the final in singles and won the doubles, because it’s not best-of-five sets for the women, it’s much easier to play singles and doubles, so therefore more chance to make money that way, because there’s very few of the singles guys that have a chance or a realistic shot of winning the event will be playing doubles here. Same thing [at Wimbledon } It’s five set singles, five set doubles, so even less guys are going to play. There’s things that we will agree on. It’s not always just about equal pay, it’s about the way the men’s and women’s tournaments differ.”

Topics: Andy Murray, ATP tennis news, Gilles Simon, Jarrko Nieminen, Kevin Anderson, Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer, Samantha Stosur, Sloane Stephens, Wimbldon, WTA tennis news

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