French Tennis Pro Gilles Simon Is Ripped A New One For Saying Female Players Should Be Paid Less
By Anna Breslaw
To say that Gilles Simon, currently seeded 13th in France and just elected to the ATP Player Council, "put his foot in his mouth" in an interview on Monday would be inaccurate; more aptly,
he intentionally, with forethought and hubris, said something fucking dumb as a rock. Right after the anniversary of Title IX, too. Booooo.
Talking to the radio station France Info and newspaper L'Equipe after winning his first round match, Simon said that he was irritated that the men's tournament in Rome was a joint event with the women without this being signed off by him, citing
under-attended women's tennis matches as the reason. He added that women shouldn't be paid as much as the men:
"
I think that men's tennis is really ahead of women's tennis at this stage. Once more, the
men spent surely twice as much time on court as the women at the French Open. We often talk about salary equality. I don't think it's something that works in sport. I think we are the only sport that has parity with the women in terms of prize money. Meanwhile, men's tennis remains more attractive than women's tennis at this moment...
Am I going to incur the wrath of feminist organizations? I don't care,"
YES, #THEWRATH. Fear us, for we will grunt with an exertion that you find distractingly sexual. That's a thing too, remember! WTF, women's tennis? Naturally, the biggest women in tennis are spitting much-deserved barbs at Simon.
Maria Sharapova said:
"We women have fought so long to get equal prize money. It was a big challenge and nobody really supported us. It's been a few years since we've gotten that. We're all really proud of it, and we continue to build the sport and make it bigger. No matter what anyone says, or the criticisms that we get, despite everything else, I mean, I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his."
And
Serena Williams:
"I mean, definitely, a lot more people are watching Maria than Simon. Women's tennis is really awesome. It's a great fight. We fought for years with Billie Jean King and Venus as well, really set the pattern on what we should do. I started playing tennis at 2 years old. I'm sure he started when he was 2 years old, as well. I worked just as hard as he did."
But perhaps the most revealing statement was that of
Sloan Stephens, an 19-year-old American female tennis star, who told this story to the press at Wimbledon (which, incidentally, only began paying men and women the same amount of prize money in 2007, the last major to do so):
He hit me with a ball when I was ball kid for the first time. He hit me right in my chest because he lost a point and set he turned around and slammed the ball and it hit me. Whatever he says, that means nothing to me. We had a discussion about it on the court last year because he was trying to kick me off the practice court in Estoril and I'm like 'Dude, you don't have this court.' His coach was nice and he asked me, 'Why don't you like him?' and I said because when I was 10 he hit me with the ball and he didn't even say sorry and kind of walked off. So I was like, 'I don't like him.'"
Asshat.
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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-1 • 1Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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2 • Wack Feelings Nosign 2Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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2 • Wack Feelings Nosign 2Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •But dude has a good point
Btw didnt read
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1 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT 1LOL •- Spam
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2 • Wack Feelings Nosign 2Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •men tennis is long as fuck
Roddick is the sergio garcia of tennis
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1 • Wack Feelings Nosign 1Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •but the prize money isn't based on how many viewers each individual can generate. if that were the case then kournikova would be handed a stack just for participating.
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1 • Wack Feelings Nosign 1Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •Your right but...I am sure the amount of viewers and ticket holders each tour generates can be caluclated and then allocate the money accordingly. Having said that...I dont think the men really want to get into the numbers...aside from Fed and Nadal nobody cares about the rest.
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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-1 • 2Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT 1LOL •lol good analogy.
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •male tennis= WNBA
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5 • Wack Feelings Nosign 3Cosign Ether 1GOAT 1LOL •idk wat u talkin bout, djokovic and nadal are two of the most entertaining players of any sex in the history of the sport
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-2 • 4Wack Feelings Nosign 2Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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0 • Wack Feelings Nosign Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •- Spam
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3 • Wack 1Feelings Nosign 3Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •I get what you're saying but Gilles went as far as saying he believes Men's tennis is more interesting. That's where viewership can be relevent and possibly Refute what he saying.
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-2 • 3Wack Feelings Nosign 1Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •thats the same shit cats get on certain females about.. when watching sports..
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1 • Wack Feelings Nosign 1Cosign Ether GOAT LOL •