Why less tennis for women?
About Roger After stumbling around the wilderness of sports and city halls for seven years, Belleville's born-and-bred Roger Schlueter finally found his niche in Lifestyle in 1981. Helping start both the paper's medical and entertainment sections, he has dabbled in everything from food to religion for the past quarter-century. As the Answer Man since 1987, he has become the paper's go-to guy for arcane and unanswerable questions. He has even taken his show on the road, becoming a legend in his own mind as a popular emcee at area trivia nights.Q. Why do women tennis players play best of three sets in grand slam events while men play the best of five? I assume it's based on some historical endurance factor, but I'm quite certain that women would have no problem lasting five.
-- T.A., of Belleville
A. You won't get any argument from Billie Jean King, the women's tennis giant who ranks third on the list of total grand slam titles with 39.
She has been lobbying for best-of-five finals for decades, saying women are up to the challenge. And, we all remember what happened when she put her racket where her mouth was: On Sept. 20, 1973, she destroyed Bobby Riggs in a best-of-fiver, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
She says history is on her side, too, if you go back far enough. From about 1891 to 1901, the U.S. Open for women was a five-set duel -- and you have to remember back then that women couldn't show skin like a Maria Sharapova does today. Perhaps the turning point came in 1902 when Elisabeth Moore had to retire in the second set.
"We've always been willing to play three out of five sets," King said in a 2007 National Public Radio interview. "When women first started to play back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we did play three out of five.
"But you have to remember, we played in a corset, a full-length dress, couldn't show our ankles or our wrists. I think one of the women that was participating back in the old days fainted or didn't feel very good, and therefore the all-men committee decided that they would only let us play two out of three sets."
That decision has never changed. Even so, Wimbledon in 2007 finally joined the other slams in giving equal paychecks to both champions -- even though in 2005, for example, women already were paid nearly 50 percent more on a per-game basis.
Many men contend women's bodies cannot handle the punishment. Besides, they say, television ratings prove that viewers would rather watch a testosterone-laced Nadal-Federer match with its power and speed than listen to Sharapova and the Williams sisters grunt and scream their way through a four-hour marathon.
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Q. Why do women tennis players play best of three sets in grand slam events while men play the best of five? I assume it's based on some historical endurance factor, but I'm quite certain that women would have no problem lasting five.
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@zkranc I have to agree with you on Clijsters. She has a nice personality, very pleasant, plays well…however, there is really nothing about her overall that would merit an urge for me to watch her games. Too bad, the Williams sisters did not make your list. The Williams, Henin, Sharapova, Clijsters & a few others have made tennis games a joy to watch! Sharapova, with her stunning beauty, Ivanovic, beautiful as well, Henin, tiny but so feisty, Serena & Venus so imposing. I love tennis!
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