Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but it was a heavy dose of Paris rain that made plain the need to address the gender gap in professional tennis.
During this year’s French Open, torrential rain forced the cancellation of play, rescheduling matches for June 7. The situation placed officials in a bind, especially since the courts do not have lights and thus all the games must be played during daylight hours. Officials decided to schedule the men’s semifinals in the main court and pushed the women’s semifinals to smaller courts, one of which seats only 5,000.
The Women’s Tennis Association and several female players blasted the decision. WTA chief Steve Simon called it “unfair and inappropriate.” Simon also said the WTA believed “other solutions were possible which would have been to the benefit of fans as well as all players.”
Former French world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam winner Amelie Mauresmo lashed out at Roland-Garros on social media, calling the decision “a disgrace.” British player Jo Konta berated the schedule when she met with the press after losing to Marketa Vondrousova and raised a valid point: “What is tiring and what is really unfortunate in this more than anything is that female athletes have to sit in different positions and have to justify their scheduling or their involvement in an event or their salary or their opportunities.” She continued, “And I think to give time to that is even more of a sad situation than what we found ourselves in today in terms of the scheduling.”
Clearly tennis is no more immune to such questions of equality as soccer, pro basketball, or other such sports. Tennis, however, has an advantage: the product.
The depth of talent in women’s tennis — Simona Halep, Sloane Stephens, Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, Aryna Sabalenka, and others — provides more than just match-by-match excitement. The athletes provide tourney-wide drama by offering a variety of tournament winners, more frequent ranking changes, and unpredictable matches.
But tournaments have to make money, and the broadcasters need viewers. That means men’s tennis, particularly matches featuring Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic take precedence. Men’s tennis draws bigger crowds to the court. It also draws in more eyeballs on television. In 2015, the BBC reported the Association of Tennis Professionals tour drew 973 million viewers compared to 395 million for the WTA.
Here’s where the women’s talent depth can be a liability: It’s harder for any one player to stand out and establish herself as the next Serena Williams. Die-hard women’s tennis fans can name most of the sport’s rising stars. The casual fan? Not so much.
Is there any way for the WTA to remedy the problem? Possibly, but it won’t happen overnight.
One solution is to change the overall game. Women’s matches tend to end in blowouts while men’s events feature closer scoring, thus keeping viewers on the edge of their seats and television viewers tuned in.
“Lowering court nets and playing with lighter tennis balls to accommodate physiological differences would help make women’s matches more competitive, with scores closer to the men’s,” according to Mosi Rosenboim of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, one of the researchers who conducted a 2016 study for the Journal of Sports Economics.
The WTA could also put pressure on major sponsors to place a woman tennis player in ads. When was the last time you saw a female tennis player in a Porsche ad or one for a tech company such as SAP? On this, Williams is the exception, not the rule.
It’s easy to sympathize with the frustration of women tennis players. They do as much as they can to bring people to the game. The time has come for the WTA to make some significant changes and for sponsors to do more to get more people to watch. There’s some great women’s tennis being played. Time for the WTA and its sponsors to stop hiding it.
Mary Chastain is an editor and writer at Legal Insurrection.
