“Treating us like second-class citizens” Billie Jean King criticizes the unfair treatment of women’s tennis at the French Open 2022
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Amelie Mauresmo, Billie Jean King
The French Open 2022 had decided to put on the night matches for the first time in the tournament. The tickets for the night matches were the costliest and the tournament organizers put the marquee players for the day in that slot for the spectators to enjoy. Out of ten-night matches, only one featured the women’s match, rest nine were swamped by male players.
When talking about the reason for such disparity the tournament director, Amelie Mauresmo initially said it was because women’s tennis had less appeal. She came under a lot of fire for the statement and later clarified saying that since women’s matches were the best of three sets, it would not give the spectators their money’s worth because the match would end quickly.
Former world number 1, and the legendary Billie Jean King has criticized the French Open’s attitude towards women’s tennis. She felt that it was very hurtful for such a prestigious tournament to have such unfair treatment. She said: “They should have the same amount of women’s matches as they do men’s. Real easy. If [they] keep treating us like second-class citizens we will stay second-class citizens.”
Billie Jean King hopes Amelie Mauresmo will take care of this disparity.
Billie Jean King was upset with this unfair treatment of women’s tennis and she said: “You want to make everyone feel important.”
It was bad management of the tournament to give just one of the ten-night matches to women. But King believes that the French Open director will take care of this for the next year. She said: “We should have more matches, but I think Amelie will take care of that next year. Knowing her, she’s a winner.”
She also advocated the best of three sets saying that it gave the older player more chances of winning the matches. She said: “I have been saying forever we should only play two out of three sets. As the players get older, I want them to be able to play,”
“Nadal is one – do you want him to stop? I never want him to stop. I want to make it possible for them to win.”
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Prateek Sinha
(365 Articles Published)