[Closed] Women's tennis.... A bit meh?

I keep meaning to create an audio quiz, "women's tennis or BDSM pornography?"

Really think they should play more sets to help even the game a little more.

They should sets it up a bit?

Short rallies?

I enjoy it every bit as much as the mens game, it's all great. Canny whack top level sport, whichever the gender.

You can remove the first word of the title as far as I'm concerned.

I tend to agree. But with the odd exception as a spectator I feel the same about most women's sport. It's a bit if an Elephant in the room but that's how I feel 🙁

Ok, to be fair, there are a fair few games being played and it looks as though it might even go to a third set...

And on another note why bother with the lines people calling out if the computer can do it with much more accuracy?

Yes, cougar, sets it up a bit... 😀 🙄

That was the worst performance by the line judges that I've ever seen in a tennis final .

Ok, so I was wrong... 2 Sets it was.

Agree re line calling....!

The way some of them grunt and squeak is comical and I can't take it seriously, so I don't watch women's tennis. It's annoying. That Halep one was a joke.

I tend to agree. But with the odd exception as a spectator I feel the same about most women's sport. It's a bit if an Elephant in the room but that's how I feel

Rugby, football, track cycling, the women's events are as entertaining as the men's, if not better (particularly football).

Other sports, mehhh. I'm sure they put in 100% of the effort the men do, and it's just as exciting to be involved in, but they're just not interesting to watch. Women's road cycling falls into that category, it's like watching Cat4 racing without the crashes.

Rugby, football, track cycling, the women's events are as entertaining as the men's, if not better (particularly football).

sorry, this is simply not true... especially the football bit. women's "top level" football is embarrassing to watch, and i say that who watches non league stuff regularly.

i don't doubt the level of commitment and effort put in by all involved but women's sport just isn't as good as men's... if they were as good they'd compete against each other and there would be a parity of victories between the sexes.

i'm struggling to think of a single sport where the top level ladies can beat the top level men. but i'm happy to be corrected... genuinely

does this make me a massive sexist? i do hope not, but i can see how my opinion will enrage quite a few 🙁

taxi25 is right, it just needs saying.

I'd rather watch that than nadal picking at his ass every 2 seconds,what's he keeping up there dr fuentes?

I'd rather watch that than nadal picking at his ass every 2 seconds,what's he keeping up there dr fuentes?

Your space bar?.

Really think they should play more sets to help even the game a little more.

So you think its a bit meh and want it to go on for [i]longer[/i]

My Mrs always watches the women's footy, despite not actually liking football. Well I say watch, its on in solidarity with the sisterhood I think, she doesn't actually look at the screen much.
Whatever, even she doesn't bother with the women's tennis.

i'm struggling to think of a single sport where the top level ladies can beat the top level men.

Netball?

Is that the point, anyway? Why do the women have to beat the men, they just have to beat each other? If you're a spectator, surely the question is rather, which is most enjoyable to watch?

Though TBH I'm probably the wrong person to speculate as most spectator sport leaves me cold. I'd rather do something myself than watch someone else doing it.

Paying best o 5 like the men would be a good start. How/why the women put up with this inequality- god knows.

So you think its a bit meh and want it to go on for longer

a bit meh partly due to the best-of-three set up. more sets would give the players more of a chance to get into the game.

each of the womens fianlists only had one game that went to three sets on their way to the final.

Paying best o 5 like the men would be a good start. How/why the women put up with this inequality- god knows.

so much for feminism.... #burnyour[s]bra[/s]racket

[s]Women's [/s]tennis.... A bit meh?

Damn, watching the final on catch up,and now I see it's two sets 🙁

Generally agree with ladies tennis from an entertainment perspective but this final is very different. Very hard hitting and athleticism. I play a lot of tennis and probably wouldn't get a point off them.

Noteworthy how Venus' volume rises depending in the importance of the point.

IMO few ladies sports compete from an overall entertainment perspective and absurd TI ask for equal pay. But, for a learning perspective their game (despite what I said about not getting a point) is much closer to men's amateur play and hence men can learn a lot from their games whereas men pros are at a level that is irrelevant to most amateurs.

Ditto golf, lady pro players are clubbing much the same as me, so I can learn from how they play a course. Male pros are playing a different game altogether

Back to admiring Garbine and Venus - impressive stuff!

As above..
It's not just Women's tennis that's beyond dull..

I don't think it really matters on whether it's a women's sport or not TBH.

Alot of men's sport is dull to watch. That rugby union shite that all the hooray henry's on here are into; most of the tour de france; about fifty percent of football matches; every single cricket match ever played etc.

I think women's sport can be really exciting but you have to get over the fact that women aren't as strong as men . In women's tennis that means that the serve isn't such a big advantage as in mens tennis consequently there are more rally's . Women's international football is far less cynical than the men's game with less diving and cynical fouling . The women's cricket has been really exciting , the England Australia World Cup game was one of the most exciting games I've watched for a long time and you didn't know who was going to win until the last ball had been bowled . Women's Athletics is just as exciting as men's even if the times are a little slower or the heights and distances aren't quite as great .

Blimey what happened there....a second set donut???

Drac - Moderator
[s]Women's[/s] tennis.... A bit meh?

Trudat

Rugby, football, track cycling, the women's events are as entertaining as the men's, if not better

No - they're generally crap. OK the track cycling is decent but, in general, women's sports are rubbish to watch compared to men's.

Serena Williams herself said that men's tennis is a different game and she'd lose 6-0 6-0 to Andy Murray in about 6 minutes.

My parents were both huge tennis fans and went to Grand Slams, Davis Cup, Masters Events and followed it all on TV for the past 40yrs. The ONLY women's match I can ever recall them watching was Virginia Wade winning Wimbledon in 1977.

If they split the Grand Slams into separate weeks for the men/women we'd see how many people wanted to watch the women then - it wouldn't be many.

I'm not knocking the female players - they're dedicated athletes but there's no way they should get the same prize money as the men because their product is not commercially as attractive. It would be the same as saying the Arsenal Ladies team should get the same wages as their male counterparts........

[s]Women's[/s] tennis.... A bit meh?
Trudat

3rd reply in thread said it anyway.

Only reason I can watch women's tennis is to see knickers. For that reason, it's better than mens.

Women boxing though, does nothing for me.

teamhurtmore - Member
Blimey what happened there....a second set donut???

After losing the first set, Venus seemed to throw in the towel. Maybe this lawsuit business has distracted her?

Only reason I can watch women's tennis is to see knickers

😆 Peanut-smuggling seems to have been a talking point this year.

Cougar - Moderator

i'm struggling to think of a single sport where the top level ladies can beat the top level men.

Netball?

Is that the point, anyway? Why do the women have to beat the men, they just have to beat each other? If you're a spectator, surely the question is rather, which is most enjoyable to watch?

to see the [u]very[/u] best is the point of watching pro/elite sports, isn't it? if you know someone can be beaten, then they're not the best... same goes for para sports, great for taking part, i just don't see why you'd want to watch it (perhaps for another thread on another day)

Knickers???

Reminds me how off putting it is swimming sets behind a woman who has a tampn string dangling out of her cossie - I struggle with that...

NExt time try pulling it, see what she says... "There's a snake in my boots!" or something.

Mixed team games ftw.

Korfball anyone?

It's coming home, it's coming home.......

robgclarkson - Member
Cougar - Moderator
i'm struggling to think of a single sport where the top level ladies can beat the top level men.

Netball?
Is that the point, anyway? Why do the women have to beat the men, they just have to beat each other? If you're a spectator, surely the question is rather, which is most enjoyable to watch?
to see the very best is the point of watching pro/elite sports, isn't it? if you know someone can be beaten, then they're not the best... same goes for para sports, great for taking part, i just don't see why you'd want to watch it (perhaps for another thread on another day)

POSTED 12 MINUTES AGO #

So by that reasoning you wouldn't have watched any of the great middleweight boxing contests because the best heavyweight could have beaten them .

This wins the prize for the most backward thread of the day. The amount of sexism and anti disability content is surprising.

Sport is about competing against others and yourself. If you enjoy watching it then great, but nobody forced you to. Women's sport is just as competitive as the mens equivalent. Expecting them to be at the same physical level is just wrong as the women are not competing against the men. Just because you don't like it does not mean that it should not exist, or is a waste of time.

BTW any comment about a woman's tampon during a sporting event is right out of order. If men had to put up with bleeding every month out of their penis you are damn sure we would all know about it. Instead they get on with it and try and put in your best performance despite having a hormonal imbalance and losing a key part of their oxygen supply mechanism.

manton69 - Member

This wins the prize for the most backward thread of the day. The amount of sexism and anti disability content is surprising.

So much white male privilege in this thread.

Jimjam you rewrote my reply far more succinctly.

Albeit completely sarcastically.

😆 the subtle ones are always best

Lael Wilcox

Yes, but your job as a bloke with regards to feminism is to get out of the way and help if required. I am SWP, but know enough to check myself before saying stuff and seeing if I would feel ok if it was said about me.

Well done manton and jimjim - gladly ... end of thread (hopefully)

BTW any comment about a woman's tampon during a sporting event is right out of order. If men had to put up with bleeding every month out of their penis you are damn sure we would all know about it. Instead they get on with it and try and put in your best performance despite having a hormonal imbalance and losing a key part of their oxygen supply mechanism.

Time of the month? 😉

i'm struggling to think of a single sport where the top level ladies can beat the top level men. but i'm happy to be corrected... genuinely

scotroutes - Member

i'm struggling to think of a single sport where the top level ladies can beat the top level men. but i'm happy to be corrected... genuinely

Showjumping

i'm happy now

manton69 - Member
This wins the prize for the most backward thread of the day. The amount of sexism and anti disability content is surprising.

Sport is about competing against others and yourself. If you enjoy watching it then great, but nobody forced you to. Women's sport is just as competitive as the mens equivalent. Expecting them to be at the same physical level is just wrong as the women are not competing against the men. Just because you don't like it does not mean that it should not exist, or is a waste of time.

BTW any comment about a woman's tampon during a sporting event is right out of order. If men had to put up with bleeding every month out of their penis you are damn sure we would all know about it. Instead they get on with it and try and put in your best performance despite having a hormonal imbalance and losing a key part of their oxygen supply mechanism.

no one's saying it's a waste of time, just that it's not as good as watching the men

and erm... you brought periods up, so, you know, we damn well know about it now

Ramsey Neil - Member

So by that reasoning you wouldn't have watched any of the great middleweight boxing contests because the best heavyweight could have beaten them.

oooo you've picked a hole in my argument there... 🙄

no one's saying it's a waste of time, just that it's not as good as watching the men

Completly agree, but according to the sexist poluce of STW if you don't enjoy watching women's sport as much as men's your a sexist ? Glad that's sorted then 🙄

For me it's more about how evenly matched things are. Men's sport is boring when it's a completely one sided affair.

I think the problem with women's sport is that they generally lack strength in depth so this is more likely. The more women who can be encouraged to participate, the better things will be.

The olympic womens road race was one of the most exciting finishes to a race I've ever seen.

I think the problem with women's sport is that they generally lack strength in depth

Agree with this, there are some great womens MMA matches but the depth is lacking in the weight classes, so outside a few great individuals you land up with big miss matches, that will hopefully change over time though

Venus Williams is having a shocker!

They just need to focus on more appropriate sports, jelly wrestling, beach volleyball, speed ironing, endurance breastfeeding, 5a side chit chat, that kind of thing

Olympic moaning

and erm... you brought periods up, so, you know, we damn well know about it now

Actually it wasn't, Teamhurtmore piped up with that on the previous page.

Ah, yet another thread demonstrating that most contributors to threads on STW are grade one a'holes.

Agreed - go have a word with yourselves, eh? Some of the attitudes on display here are utterly pathetic.

A portrait of the average contributor to this thread:

[img] [/img]

Because you have a differing opinion to someone else it make you an a hole... ok

I'm right though 😉

Two words:

Eugenie Bouchard.

Wouldn't mind playing some mixed doubles with her.

<Sid James laugh>

😀

Nah women have just arrived late to a party thats over. Its not womans sport that is the problem.

Sport is dead.

Mens doubles final, five set thriller on court for over 4 and 1/2 hours.

Women doubles final, 2 sets on court for 50 minutes.

Outrageous that they get paid the same for a vastly interior product. Equality should mean just that, they should play 5sets like the men for equal pay.

I wonder what it is you want from Women's Sport?

Do you want them to be more glamorous, heels and makeup, nails done maybe and low cut tops?
Do you want them more sexualised? Maybe that would keep the interest.

It's not like Women's Tennis hasn't been around for a while, gone through all the criticism for being boring and dull and not as physically demanding as the Men's game is it. Nooooo, like never... maybe this time every year perhaps?
Probably.

Women's [b]anything[/b] has been challenged, is constantly challenged, for being different to Men's [i]anything[/i]

It's odd that today, with all our education and information available, gender training in the workplace, schools promoting skills rather than Sex, that Women's rights to "equal" Men's keep popping up again and again.

You'd think the message would have gotten through by now, it seems it's either missed it's target audience or the message is corrupted.

Back to the Game, quite where the grunts came from and the fashion to follow the trend I've no idea, there are initiatives in place to calm the grunt and it's working to some extent but clearly for the hard of thinking it's not enough. Most TV sets these days come with volume controls, we could try that I suppose.
Equal Sets for Equal Pay has been, and will be, constantly brought up. But the Game isn't some production piece work line.
The Pay initiative is there because the training and physical effort, medical and physical needs are the same, hotels and support networks are the same as Men's as they are for Women's Tours.

I like playing Tennis, not a huge fan of watching it. I've been to Wimbledon twice and found myself walking amongst the warm up or lower ranked games out back, leaving the big games to those that want to either be seen on TV or say "I was there when.."

This thread makes me sad.

This bit of the thread made me laugh...

NExt time try pulling it, see what she says...

But, like, don't do that, kids!

So women can fight in front line combat roles in the army, but can't play 5 sets of tennis like the men. ? Where's the equity in that.

Treat everyone the same, No gender weighting.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/sep/07/paralympic-stars-earning-potential-soar

Even more outrageous! I mean, they don't even use their own limbs.

Back to the Game, [b]quite where the grunts came from and the fashion to follow the trend I've no idea,[/b] there are initiatives in place to calm the grunt and it's working to some extent but clearly for the hard of thinking it's not enough. Most TV sets these days come with volume controls, we could try that I suppose.

I remember Tracy Austin as a 15 year old used to make quite a lot of noise on court. I also remember when Navratilova openly complained about Monica Seles' grunting.

Do you want them to be more glamorous, heels and makeup, nails done maybe and low cut tops?
Do you want them more sexualised? Maybe that would keep the interest.

Quite the opposite: One of the things that annoys me about the Williams sisters is that they seem to treat the court as a fashion show, almost as much as a sporting challenge.

That aside: I agree that women should play 5 sets, they should have equal prize money, and they should have parity in coverage. I can't believe we are still discussing this in 2017.

It's not just tennis, though: Women's road cycling features shorter races, which leads me to wonder what evidence they are using to justify reducing the length of time women are allowed to compete for. Does it simply come down to the fact that they don't think audiences are interested enough to stay for the full duration?

Having said that: Women race over exactly the same triathlon and Ironman courses as the men.

Bikebouy - a long espousal of women's [b]equal rights[/b] then an attempt to airily dismiss women's [b]equal responsibilites[/b] with:

But the Game isn't some production piece work line.

I guess one of the challenges for women's tennis is that few would be able to sustain a 5 set match. That would bring us back to the lack of depth in the field.

Having said that, a look at the WTA rankings suggests that it's much more open than the men's at present. Look at how many of the top 10/20 women have been #1 at some point.

Women should play 5 sets, race over the same distances etc. Its a no-brainer.

Also women could do 5 sets. No doubt in my mind.

bikebouy - Member

I wonder what it is you want from Women's Sport?

Do you want them to be more glamorous, heels and makeup, nails done maybe and low cut tops?
Do you want them more sexualised? Maybe that would keep the interest.

It's not like Women's Tennis hasn't been around for a while, gone through all the criticism for being boring and dull and not as physically demanding as the Men's game is it. Nooooo, like never... maybe this time every year perhaps?
Probably.

Women's anything has been challenged, is constantly challenged, for being different to Men's anything

It's odd that today, with all our education and information available, gender training in the workplace, schools promoting skills rather than Sex, that Women's rights to "equal" Men's keep popping up again and again.

You'd think the message would have gotten through by now, it seems it's either missed it's target audience or the message is corrupted.

Exactly. The problem with women's sport, similarly men's sport is that they exist. All they do is suppress gender fluidity and perpetuate the cis gender, binary white male patriarchy. Gender is a choice, not a biological straight jacket, ergo people should be free to compete in sport as expressions of themselves not some faux societal gender construct. The emphasis on winning should be removed as this is a prime example of machismo braggadocio - a symptom of the toxic masculinity, and moreover the conceptual penis as a social construct, which infects our society and destroys our ability to express our non binary selves. Sports where strength and speed matter should be banned, since men are only faster and stronger through societal conditioning as a result of the conceptual isomorphism of the penis.

Where strength and speed cannot be completely eliminated hormone balancing should be mandatory so that the societal advantages given to boys are neutralised with exogenous female hormones, and vice versa. The obvious neccessity of these measures can be seen in phrases regarding toxic hypermasculine competitiveness like “pissing contest,” in which winners are determined by which hypermasculine person is able to project a stream of urine the furthest, often from a height, and “dick-measuring contest,” which needs no elaboration to unveil the direct impact of performative machismo braggadocio competitiveness which leads directly to the ugliest expressions of the human experience such as rape, murder, global capitalism and war.

What's the issue - at SW19 the pay for women and men is the same. Why? Because they can get the same bums on seats to watch the matches.

Step away from majors and what are the relative spectators numbers and why? Hence the pay differential. It's not rocket science. Prize money depends on the numbers you attract to watch and sponsorship. It's not a charity.

As I said above, I often prefer watching ladies sport because it is close to the game that I play/aspire to play to. Would I pay the same, sometimes yes. Are the rest of the crowds at ladies'events big. No, not always. Simple isn't it...?

Jimjam - 🙂

Oh come on, JimJam deserves more than that ^^^^^.
I mean, if there were prize money for making people laugh on internet forums, he'd be a millionaire.
I've not got a single uncracked rib left after his hilarious post.
What a guy!!!

Neither men's finalist given any lovely flowers. What's going on?

First blood Rog

Well the men have certainly earned their money since the semis. TEN hugely entertaining sets of tennis over the last three games. Good on them.

Half the people on this thread will be upset about Dr Who! Just will not be worth watching for them! (Of course half means a few)

[i]Half the people on this thread will be upset about Dr Who[/i]

The 10 year olds?

^^ mentality you mean .... then yes

The problem with women's tennis isn't that they're women, it's the Williams sisters. Meant in the nicest possible way - when you get a dominant player or two who can batter their opponent off the court, it makes for rubbish games. See Sampras etc. Men's tennis is better now because of Federer and Murray. They play in a way that's better to watch. It'll change in time, these things always do.

Konta's games were cracking to watch. I'd rather watch her than Djokovich any day.

I tend to agree. But with the odd exception as a spectator I feel the same about most women's sport. It's a bit if an Elephant in the room but that's how I feel

The elephant in the room is WHY women's sport is not as good.

Why are women rugby players amateurs?
Why are there so few women rugby players?
Why is there no women's Tour de France of any consequence?

etc etc.

It's because of latent sexist attitudes in society that see women's sport as inferior. People don't watch it because it's not on, it's not billed the same, standards are lower because there's less money in it because it's not on and it's not watched as much. Little girls have to struggle to find sporting role models and to compete in high quality competitions. You don't see little boys short of sporting role models do you?

Sports organisers need to put the events on, telly companies need to show them - to lead the assault on a particularly sexist area of society. They are doing it pretty well with Paralympic sport - C4 are quite rightly making a big deal out of it and now many para athletes are household names. They may not be as fast running on prosthetic legs but that doesn't really matter when they are racing each other does it?

Women's rugby is worse because it's amateur.

I really like Womens tennis, mostly because it isn't so serve dominated, I do find it great to watch.

It's because of latent sexist attitudes in society that see women's sport as inferior. People don't watch it because it's not on, it's not billed the same, standards are lower because there's less money in it because it's not on and it's not watched as much. Little girls have to struggle to find sporting role models and to compete in high quality competitions. You don't see little boys short of sporting role models do you?

EDIT-Just read jimjams, he said what I wanted to. My post can be safely ignored even more than it was going to be.