I watch women's tennis on TV just hear the loud grunts (1 Viewer)

[Danny Tse]

Interesting article at BBC's website regarding female tennis players' loud grunting. Over 101 dB??!! Where's my Radio Shack analog SPL meter??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4118708.stm

 

[Dave Poehlman]

A local radio show had a recording of one of the matches dubbed with porno music... it was hilarious.

 

[Danny Tse]

I can almost hear this.....

"Honey, I am not watching porn....it's women's tennis!"

 

[Chu Gai]

The grunting I can do without. Off topic, why is it that women are paid the same as the men when it comes to the prizes?

 

[MikeAB]

It depends on the tournament whether men and women are paid the same. Wimbledon and the French have men making more, while the U.S. Open and the Australian pay equal for men and women. Personally, I feel that the prize money should be determined by the number of people at each of the matches. If more people are watching the men's matches then the women's, the men deserve more money and vice versa. However, it probably is pretty hard to determine this with so many courts going at once, and the men and women probably bring in the same number of fans for a major, so in my opinion it should be equal.

 

[Mark Shannon]

That is the most sexist comment I have ever heard. Why should they not be? They're playing the same game.

 

[Ken Chan]

Is that unfair because they only play best of three sets instead of five? Perhaps they draw the same (or better) crowds.

You must not get out much

 

[Danny Tse]

What about the TV ratings? I think the TV ratings are much higher for women's tennis. And McEnroe would agree with me.

 

[Ken Chan]

Letterman did a thing on Wimbledon last night. In addition to pointing out that it's spelled with a "D" and should be pronounced to end with "dun" and not "ten", he did not just one, but two separate highlight clips, with a woman jumping or running in slow motion. No men.

 

[Mary M S]

Puts Kleenex to nose: Aaaaawwhhhh CHU....


Off……………………………….topic, why is it ……………….are paid............................
that women are paid
……………………………………………..comes to prizes?
……………………………………………………..same as the men when it comes to the prizes?

 

[Mark Shannon]

Well, I meant most sexist comment I've seen on this forum.

 

[Chu Gai]

Come on now Mary. Equal pay for equal work no? Why can't women go for best of 5 like the men?

 

[Carlo_M]

Interesting question, and as a HS former player I can't really remember a reason being given. It was just always accepted that men played best of 5 and women best of 3.

And to honor this thread we should all have a moment of silence to commemorate Monica Seles, the first "grunter" of women's tennis (though sometimes it sounded like a shriek).

I remember when she first broke into the game and the women's side was in uproar about how disruptive her noises were. At the time I do seem to recall that a valid complaint was that the grunt masked the sound of the ball hitting the racket (an audio cue as to how the ball was struck). But now it seems to be commonplace. I did step away from the sport around that time, so I never really knew what became of the Seles Grunting Fiasco, but then tuned in many years later to find that all women now grunt (and men too).

 

[Artur Meinild]

Pervs...

 

[Holadem]

Yup, she probably invented it. I used to watch a lot of tennis as a child (my father was a tennis nuts, and we had to take lessons). Back in the days of Evert, Navratilova, Graf, Sabatini etc... Seles' grunts were definitely formidable and unique.

Man this thread brings back so many memories.

--
H

 

[John Spencer]

Read more threads. It'll all fall into place.

 

[Scott L]

Hey well maybe it is equal; you try sprinting around the court with jumbly wumblies and tell us how you feel.

 

[Carlo_M]

Sabatini...man I remember watching her matches with great...interest

 

[brentl]

"Is that unfair because they only play best of three sets instead of five?"

YEp, woman should be paid for five sets, prorated to three sets.

5 sets = $500 000

3 sets = $300 000

Brent

 

[EugeneR]

I believe that TV ratings these days are considerably higher for women's tennis so if anything, they should be getting paid more than the men (which they are, by a wide margin, if you take endorsements for the top few players into account). That being said, I believe I understand Chu's point--more work (5 sets vs. 3) deserves more pay.

I do believe it is about time the women started playing best 3 out of 5 as well. I don't know, but my guess would be that women weren't allowed to play 5 sets way back when for the same reason they were not allowed to run "long" distance races such as 800 meters--too strenuous for the fair sex. Nobody ever tried to change it most likely.