"99% of male tennis players can't stand women's tennis. There's no other sport with such a big disparity concerning level of play and the money women make. A friend of mine says that a woman who wins a Slam should only earn enough money to pay for her airplane ticket home. Who knows what else I would say if it wasn't for Ana and Jelena whom I may consider friends. But of course, I appreciate the effort they're putting into tennis, because I know they practise as hard as I do. [...] The way women think on court cannot be compared to men. Their only strategy is 'hit the ball where your opponent isn't.' Nothing more! No 'Put more spin on the ball, this is an important point, play to her backhand'. No way! [...] It's that such kind of tennis works today. Look at the Williams sisters, Sharapova or Ivanovic who hits the ball like a truck on steroids. I get a bit critical when I see how much the women earn and how their opening rounds go. That's what irritates me the most, I feel like going to WTA HQ and *something* all of them. Look at Federer who is so dominant, he has to work so hard to beat a Staracce or an Almagro, he may even lose a set and then look at Sharapova or Ivanovic who lose 3 games in the first 4 rounds. It makes me sick".

The above was translated on another site. Here is the source, but it is in Serbian.

http://www.b92.net/zivot/licni_prostor.php?nav_id=306659

Good thing I had absolutely no crushing interest on this guy cuz he sounds like a real a**hole

Yeah that is really not a good thing to say.... but some of these younger players often put their foot in their mouths- Johnny Mac used to be a huge a-hole about women's tennis until hitting with and realizing what an awesome athlete Steffi Graf was.... and he is now one of the hugest fans of the top echelon of women's tennis.

As long as this statement is in isolation, I will leave as it is- but more evidence of this and I am off the Tipsy bandwagon completely.

Maybe Venus can make some commentary on this if it is brought to her attention.

Eh, I'd be more shocked but this is old hat. Bashing women's tennis is nothing new and that makes it easy to ignore. I'm disappointed Tipsy is taking part but even Djoko weighed in against the equal pay thing in less-than-glowing terms, and I'd wager Serbia still has a machismo culture. I would pay more attention if people began demanding that Fed or Rafa get smaller paycheques the next time they blow through a Slam without dropping a set (see: AO '07, FO '08), but in that case somehow court time doesn't matter - and it shouldn't. Tennis doesn't pay by the hour; it pays by achievement.

I especially love the nonsense about easy early rounds for the women when Sharapova and Ivanovic (whom he singles out for criticism) were both vanquished in straight sets in the 2nd and 3rd rounds just this past Slam, and his other countrywoman Jankovic barely escaped a 12-10 in the third set first-round match at this year's AO. Maybe Tipsy should spend more time kicking himself for throwing away a golden opportunity to reach a Slam semifinal for the very first time on one of tennis's biggest stages, losing tamely instead to a man a decade older ranked barely in the Top 100.

WTA tennis is kind of like hockey. People fall all over themselves to put it down and ridicule it and yet the fans keep on coming. Either you get it or you don't, and if you do, it shouldn't matter that others don't.

I did a quick search on prize money at the top three tournaments where there's both a Masters Series and Tier I event, but where the ATP and WTA are separately responsible for prize money (as opposed to Miami or the Slams, where it's all mixed together) ...

Indian Wells
Men $3.589M total prize money, $565K to champion
Women $2.1M prize money, $332K to champion

Italian Open (fx 1 euro = 1.5 USD)
Men $3.405M total, $540K to champion
Women $1.34M total, $197K to champion (website just says "$", I assume it's USD)

Canadian Open (2007 numbers)
Men $2.45M total, $400K to champion (website specifically states USD)
Women $1.34M total, $182K to champion (doesn't state whether USD or CD, but they're almost at parity anyway)

Despite the significant disparities in these events, I'm OK with equal prize money in the Slams because if the revenue comes in all lumped together (TV rights for the men's and women's draws aren't sold separately, and the stands are sold out whether men or women are playing), then the prize money should be equal. Besides, total prize money for men, women, dubs, and mixed is still a fraction of total revenue at the Slams. But I do think prize money should remain the separate responsibilities of the ATP and WTA otherwise. If the men bring in a lot more revenue, they should be paid accordingly. Grumbling from journeymen ATPers is understandable. If there's such a big gap in prize money in Indian Wells (because it's the separate responsibilities of the two tours), then why equal prize money a week later in Miami?

As a great believer in free markets, I think you should get paid what someone else is legally willing to pay you. The only sport I can think of where women actually outdraw the men is figure skating (yeah, macho me is a figure skating fan - can you believe it?!?). There are no separate events in figure skating. All men's and ladies' competitions (btw, it's always "men" and "ladies" in figure skating - "men" because they want to appear more macho <tee hee> and "ladies" because they want to distract from the fact that many competitors are actually 83-pound girls) are held at the same event. But if the ladies did branch off, like their own version of the WTA Tour, I'm pretty sure the women would outearn the men in even greater disparities to the numbers above. I say go for it, ladies!!

Bobby Riggs lives!

I guess it goes to show that no amount of heavy philosophical reading can prevent a guy from being a moronic sexist dickhead. Maybe he should read Simone de Beauvoir and Monique Wittig instead of more Heidegger or whoever? Make no mistake, Tipsy can go on saying whatever he feels like, he's the one clowning himself. Especially with the Wimbledon results this year, which showed there's more depth and danger in the women's game.

Urban Suede, I hear you about the familiarity of these remarks and that cultural machismo has a specific role in this case. Djokovic feels similarly.

All of the whining and huffing would be a little less ---hole if all of these players weren't getting astronomical sums. And if the price discrepancy wasn't so large the majority of the year. The equal pay at the slams is the exception, not the rule. And it's hypocrisy for the men to pull out the tired 'I play more' card when men and women play the same set count at non-slam ATP-and-WTA events but the women get between 2/3 and 1/3(!) the pay.

These are all just men and women, not absolute heroes and villains. There's still stuff to like or love about Tipsy (and even Djokovic? ). He just needs a strong woman or feminist gay guy to box him around the ears a bit.

I suspect Tipsy is just bitter and jealous because the top women earn so much more than him. Perhaps he should consider a sex change?

More alleged gems from the mind and mouth of Janko (supposedly from earlier interviews; at least one if not two back up something Lynn inferred on this board a long time ago):

"Agassi was my idol, but he really disappointed me when he married Steffi."

Asked to comment on Kournikova: "She isn't all that beautiful, it's just the other female players are just so ugly. I've never seen an at least pretty tennis player, except Sabatini." (: alert Gaga!)

"I know there are some homosexual male players, but I try not to have any contact with them. And as for women, I know Mauresmo is a pervert."

No doubt, for the long-awaited first out male player on the ATP tour, the locker room will be a skip through the PC daisies.

The Martina Hingis/Justin Gimelstob Crash Courses In Public Speaking worked for me, they can work for you, too!!!

The only difference between him and most of the other guys on tour is that he's not smart enough to keep quiet or say the politically correct thing even though he doesn't believe it.

Not sure what this has anything to do with anything. Are you suggesting the marketplace is malfunctioning when women act collectively to "demand" equal prize money? Sounds like a perfectly sound negotiating strategy to me. Are you suggesting Tipsy is wrong to say men deserve more based on their level of play? Again, sounds like nothing so much as a suggestion that the majors open up their pocketbooks and pay the men *even more* than they're getting now. Probably won't work, but what on earth does it have to do with "free markets"?


Yes, I can believe it.

Nooooooooo!!!!!! I'm so unhappy to hear all of this, and I'm still hoping it aint true. What a pity!