Let's Play Five!

Big news in sporting circles today is that Wimbledon will now be paying equal prize money to men and women throughout all rounds of its tournament. But is it really equal pay? I don't have stats in front of me, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that based on the fact that women play best-of-three matches while men play best-of-five, men are probably logging a lot more court time for the same money.

In tennis, more than any other sport (except, perhaps, figure skating, and we can argue over whether that's really a sport later), women and men are able to compete on equal footing for publicity and media coverage. I have absolutely no problem with women and men earning the same amounts of money. I do believe, however, that if equal money is to be paid, players need to work equally hard for it.

It's time for women tennis pros to switch to five-set matches, at least in major events. The notion that women are physically incapable of going five sets is an archaic relic of a bygone era. The fact that the pro tennis world still subscribes to it is frankly insulting to today's female athletes, who are well-trained, extraordinarily fit, athletic machines. Plus, longer women's matches would mean that we would get to look at Maria Sharapova for almost twice as much time as we do now.