Of all popular sports -- most of which are dominated by men -- tennis is the one that's been the closest to a model of gender equality. Starting with Billie Jean King's work and her 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" match, tennis has paved the way, leaping ahead of its time in 2007 when the World Tennis Association (WTA) helped secure equal pay for men's and women's players in all four majors. The gender wage gap remains a critical societal issue, but in tennis, they got it right way before many organizations.
Eight years later, some leaders in the tennis world -- namely a handful of rich white men -- are using their platform to scrutinize and openly question equal pay in their sport. These men apparently want to drag tennis back to the wrong side of history, and in doing so, have revealed their true nature in the sexist language they've used to argue against equal pay.
And so on Monday, former Romanian tennis champion Ion Tiriac, who's now a 76-year-old billionaire and the owner of the Madrid Open, joined the likes of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and former Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore in his sexist equal pay takedown.
“I like, very much more, women than men,” said Tiriac to the New York Times in a story published on Monday. That's great, Tiriac! What's the reasoning there?
“All my life, I’ve done that. The longer the legs theirs are, the more beautiful I think they are," he said. "Even in tennis, they’re gracious and so on. But I don’t see the equal prize money being the status. Maybe they deserve more? Pay more the women if they deserve."
Nope, nope, nope. As discussed in relation to the U.S. women's soccer lawsuit for equal pay, it's not a matter of "deserving" more money or paying players based on revenue -- it's a matter of policy fairness and adjusting the pay scales to account for a history of women's marginalization within sports. It's the right thing to do.
Still don't believe in equal pay? Tiriac's objectification of women's players, reducing them to "long-legged" and "gracious" feminine stereotypes (female athletes, like men, come in all shapes and playing styles) only punctuates why equal pay is necessary and must continue in tennis, because he's not alone.
In March, Indian Wells CEO and former player Raymond Moore stepped down following his own sexist rant. He came under fire after saying that women's players "ride on the coattails of the men" and should "go down every night on [their] knees" to thank the game's male players for supposedly carrying the sport. (Serena Williams is tennis' biggest star, if anyone needs reminding.) Djokovic followed Moore's comments by suggesting that men may actually deserve more money than women, and should fight for it.
Saying it's OK to purposefully pay women less for equal work is degrading, and it flows from the inherent sexism our patriarchy produces and tolerates. The comments from Tiriac, Moore and to a lesser degree, Djokovic, are pure by-products of that.
Ironically, the Madrid Open already offers equal pay, but Tiriac is reportedly "discussing" its continuation with the WTA because of stated viability concerns -- the billionaire says he'll go "broke" if women receive pay increases outlined by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). This is, of course, nonsense.
Tiriac himself claims that the Madrid Open has an annual net profit of about $40 million and hauls in over $220 million in revenue each year. And his millions in profits aren't because he only does a men's tournament -- the Madrid Open features both genders and is packaged and sold thusly. WTA chief executive Steve Simon noted that to the Times in his response to Tiriac's quotes, completely shutting down any debate over the future of equal pay.
"It’s promoted as men and women, all towards that brand and product, and he sells it as one. And so on that basis, equal is certainly right," he said.
Take a seat, rich white guys.
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