Just two months after recently-ousted Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore ignited a firestorm by saying that women’s tennis players “ride on the coattails of the men,” another leader of a prominent Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournament is following in his footsteps.
This time, the perpetrator is Ion Tiriac, the owner of the co-ed Mutua Madrid Open and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“Saying that they’re equal — they’re not equal,” the 76-year-old Tiriac told Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times when discussing men’s and women’s tennis. “I mean, once again, I prefer a woman on the court, they are beautiful on the court. Even Federer, who is very elegant, I prefer an elegant woman, not Mr. Federer. But they are not bringing to the table the same thing.”
What The Reaction To Raymond Moore’s Comments Reveals About Sexism In TennisSports by CREDIT: AP images On Sunday, Raymond Moore, the tournament director of Indian Wells, one of the largest men’s…thinkprogress.orgThe Romanian billionaire told the Times that he likes women more than he likes men, but his remarks were clearly directed more at the physical appearance of the women than their athletic talents.
“The longer the legs theirs are, the more beautiful I think they are. Even in tennis, they’re gracious and so on. But I don’t see the equal prize money being the status,” he said. “Maybe they deserve more? Pay more the women if they deserve.
“But I think we have to go and calculate how much money are the men putting on the table, and how much the women, with TV rights. Because otherwise we have to compensate, and compensate, and compensate, and you cannot compensate forever. For that reason, it’s a beautiful sport, but I don’t think the women can complain that they don’t earn enough money.”
Tiriac made similar comments last week to Spanish media outlet El Mundo.
Ion Tiriac, Madrid tournament director, on women's tennis. At least he said it respectfully https://t.co/BAxpmp0vWh pic.twitter.com/k4BDV3bXSv
— Carl Bialik (@CarlBialik) May 6, 2016
Madrid is one of the few tournaments outside of the Grand Slams that offers equal prize money to both men and women. Overall, women’s tennis players still earn less than their male counterparts throughout the course of a season.
Tiriac — whose estimated net worth is reported to be twice as much as Michael Jordan’s — said that he’s worried that he will go “broke” if he continues to increase women’s prize money at the same rate as the men’s.
At Indian Wells in March, Moore said that women’s tennis players need to “get down every night on [their] knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport.” He also said that women’s tennis had “quite a few very, very attractive players.” Moore’s comments were dismissed by everyone from Andy Murray to Serena Williams, and he resigned from his job 48 hours later.
Tiriac told Rothenberg that Moore’s mistake was attempting to use humor instead of facts to prove his point.
“I do something different: I put it in numbers,” he said. “If the men give me 40 dollars from television, and the women give me seven dollars, it’s not the same. Finished.”
Steve Simon, the CEO of the WTA, says that he “fully” expects Madrid to keep honoring its commitment to equal prize money, and is bothered that Tiriac’s comments were so appearance based.
“Anytime you get into beginning to say that you like something because of the look, rather than the talent, I struggle with that,” Simon said. “People are entitled to their opinions there, but it’s certainly not something that we condone. I’m always disappointed when I hear comments such as that, because our athletes stand for themselves and their athletic ability.”