Real Gender Pay Gaps: Tennis
Over the weekend, Wimbledon reached its climax. Two greats of the sports sought to further cement their names in the netted, enmeshed annals of history. Serena Williams was attempting to chase down the 45-year long record set by Margaret Court. Williams currently holds 23 tennis Majors, one behind Margaret Court and Saturday would have drew the American level in what has been a life-changing year for her. After complications following the birth of her daughter Alexis-Olympia, Serena William's life hung in the balance. Ten months later, she reached the final of the world's most famous Grand Slam, looking to secure an eighth title at Wimbledon. She failed; losing in two sets to Germany's Angelique Kerber who won her third Grand Slam and first Wimbledon, defeating the seven-time champion in 65 minutes.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the men's draw culminated in a victory for Serbia's Novak Djokovic over South Africa's Kevin Anderson. The victory granted Djokovic his fourth Wimbledon and 13th Grand Slam overall. His win puts Djokovic fourth on the list of all-time Grand Slam singles' titles in men's tennis. Only Pete Sampras (14), Rafael Nadal (17) and Roger Federer (20) have won more Majors than the Serbian. Novak is the eighth man in tennis to have won all four Grand Slams, joining Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic's win was more straightforward than he - and tennis fans - are used to seeing from him in a Grand Slam final. A reason for this is likely that one of the other so-called "Big Four" (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray) wasn't his opponent. He secured the title in straight sets, best two-out-of-three, taking nearly two-hours-and-twenty-minutes on the court. The semi-finals proved the real battles. The match between Djokovic and Nadal delayed the women's final because it lasted late into the night on Friday. Overall Djokovic's semi-final lasted five-and-a-half hours and the distribution over two days was in response to the other men's semi-final between Kevin Anderson and John Isner.
Isner is the American player who competed in the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon 2010. The game lasted over 11-hours with the last set going in Isner's favour, 70-68, the fifth set alone lasted over eight hours, breaking the previous record for the longest match in its own right. Spread over three days, Isner also scored the record for most aces in a match (113, Mahut coming second with 103!)
Fast forward eight years and Isner lost to Anderson in the longest Grand Slam semi-final in history that lasted for over six-and-a-half hours. It pushed the Nadal-Djokovic tie back to after 8 pm and inevitably, as two of tennis's most determined competitors, it needed to continue the following day, lasting five-and-a-half hours in total. Meaning all-in-all, both men's semi-finals lasted half a day. Even a game that lasted as long as the final on Sunday (two-and-a-half hours) is a rare occurrence in women's tennis. One woman is often the dominant one on the day, and we take a title in straight sets, two-out-of-three, in the space of an hour.
As of 2018, the prize money for the champion is £2.25 million ($3.3 million), which is equal for both men and women. Given the fact that championship finals contested by the "Big Four" often span entire afternoons and extend into evenings too, it seems a little unfair that in Grand Slams men receive the same prize money as women. Week-in, week-out, ATP (men) and WTA (women's) tennis tournaments are hosted globally, and in these lesser opens, both sexes play best of three. Therefore, competitions such as Indian Wells, for example, have the right to pay men and women equally.
In a Grand Slam, however, where John McEnroe said of the Isner/Mahut game that it likely reduced their careers by six months. Or where a sports surgeon declared that the two players risked dehydration, hyperthermia and kidney damage from that mammoth bout. This means that in a Grand Slam, women are paid more for less work; a true gender pay gap if ever there was one.
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