Reply to: Women tennis players pay

[DoctorStrangelove]

I'm sure we could find threads much older than that. There's some classics back there.

Muggers getting beaten with a shoe springs to mind. .

[sadkingbilly]

a ten year old thread? - really?

[Stevep42]

<mod note>Just spam. Nothing to see. Move along</mod note>

[unixman]

Womens' games tend to go on longer though as each point is normally a rally due to lack of brute force to hit unreturnable serves and so on. Well so it seems watching, some stats would be useful.

a 5 set match of that would be Zzzz

Until about 5 years ago, womens' tennis was better viewing in some ways by being a tad slower, enabling proper rallies. However it is now "bang bang" just like the mens.

As for womens 3 set matches going on longer than mens 5 sets, I don't think that was ever the case. It doesn't make sense.

[BrilloPad]

It's a bit like concerts where you have to have two acts before the main act. The main act is then on for an hour....

Reminds me of when George Harrison went to see Led Zeppelin. He asked Peter Grant if he could meet the group. Peter said "they are about to go on - you can meet them in 2.5 hours". George said "what about the interval". Peter "no interval".

George "we are booked for 15 minutes. we play 10".

[SueEllen]

The thing about Serena's matches is they are normally over in about 55min

It's a bit like concerts where you have to have two acts before the main act. The main act is then on for an hour....

[d000hg]

The thing about Serena's matches is they are normally over in about 55min

[SueEllen]

Womens' games tend to go on longer though as each point is normally a rally due to lack of brute force to hit unreturnable serves and so on. Well so it seems watching, some stats would be useful.

a 5 set match of that would be Zzzz

It's the same way Novak Djokovic matches seem to go on forever but Rafael Nadal's don't.

Andy Murray has said this:

“One of the things Novak said was that if women are selling more seats and tickets they should make more but at a tournament like this, for example, if Serena is playing on centre court and you have a men’s match with Stakhovsky playing, people are coming to watch Serena.

linky

[d000hg]

Obvious solution is to make women's tennis extend to 5 sets, like men's. There is no way today's top women are incapable of playing 5 sets, and it would make the TV people happy, and the viewers, and the "equality" hardliners. Can't think of another sport where women actually do 40% less than the men.

Womens' games tend to go on longer though as each point is normally a rally due to lack of brute force to hit unreturnable serves and so on. Well so it seems watching, some stats would be useful.

a 5 set match of that would be Zzzz

[Dactylion]

Fail

Men play Netball.

In New Zealand it's a mixed sport.

Err No - I never said that men didn't play netball
Netball, even in New Zealand is mainly a womens sport.
The top level of Netball is basically a womens sport - men are not allowed to play. Although there may be mens and/or a mixed netball tournaments.

I expect some men, in New Zealand and other countries, do participate on other womens sports and also that many men and women compete against each other in all sorts of sport - but this doesn't get past the fact that the best men are better than the best women.

My original challenge is still there - name one event or sport that women are objectively better at than men.

eg: Where a woman holds the world record/world championship etc.

If it helps I think that the world record for freediving has been held by women? (I don't know if it is now)

[Dactylion]

I think you missed the 'but' in LM's comment. For most sports where men are better (if 'better' is defined as bigger, stronger, faster, further etc), there isn't significant interest (from men) in the women's game.

It is difficult to think of any definition of "better" wrt an objective measure of a sport than bigger/stronger/faster.

Subjective measures of "nicer to watch" for whatever reason are..... well subjective.

A true tennis fan might argue that it is much "better" to watch ladies tennis because:
a) You can see/watch technique easier
b) Skill/Technique is more important (rather than brute force)
Obviously for the last decade plus this has been eclipsed by the Williams sisters, among many others, use of brute force to obliterate the skill touch and technique of less powerful players.
etc etc

But it is still pretty inescapable that the top mens players would (easily) beat the top ladies players.
NB - I am not suggesting that "any" man could beat "any" woman... just that the best men would beat the best women.

I know you are open minded enough to acknowledge that the most widely publicised "Battle of the Sexes" matches weren't really "fair".

Riggs vs BJ King - Riggs aged 55 and long retired vs BJ King about 29 and a current top player
Everyone remembers that BJ King beat Riggs

Fewer people remember that Riggs had previously destroyed Margaret Court.
Court was the current ladies No1 (at 30 years old) and the match only happened because BJ King (a fiery advocate of equality - particularly wrt pay) wouldn't take up the challenge.

Also worthy of note is that BJ King learned a lot from Riggs slaughter of Court and totally changed her normal tactics to exploit the weaknesses of a relatively unfit old man.

[unixman]

Obvious solution is to make women's tennis extend to 5 sets, like men's. There is no way today's top women are incapable of playing 5 sets, and it would make the TV people happy, and the viewers, and the "equality" hardliners. Can't think of another sport where women actually do 40% less than the men.

[SueEllen]

Assuming you were attempting to name a sport where women are better than men - ROFPML!

Put the world champion (womens) netball team against even an average mens basketball team and I would wager the mens team would win - given a little while to learn the rules.

Saying Netball is a bit like saying - Womens shot putt....
ie The world champion/record holder is a woman but the male record, with a much heavier ball, is much longer.. and the man could hurl the womens shot an awful lot further.

Fail

Men play Netball.

In New Zealand it's a mixed sport.

[d000hg]

There is such a thing as Mixed Hockey.

And mixed doubles tennis. Presumably in hockey they have to field a minimum number of women, and that's exactly how many they do field?

[NigelJK]

There is such a thing as Mixed Hockey. And Mixed Doubles at Tennis. Notice how the pay packet is determined by the market forces.