By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Monday, May 22, 2023

It’s not been the very best couple of weeks for the WTA.

While the WTA 1000 occasions in Madrid and Rome concluded with Aryna Sabalenka (Madrid) and Elena Rybakina (Rome) profitable their respective singles titles, a number of points created lower than ideally suited public relations for each match organizers and the WTA. 

These points proceed to generate dialogue on social media and within the sports press about how the ladies's tour is handled in another way than the boys's tour.

First, in Madrid, there was “cakegate” when Sabalenka was offered with a smaller birthday cake the day after hometown hero Carlos Alcaraz was given a a lot bigger cake for his on-court birthday celebration by organizers. 

Couldn’t be extra correct on the therapy https://t.co/x89RytI0zV

— victoria azarenka (@vika7) May 5, 2023

At the tip of Madrid, the ladies’s doubles finalists and champions had been, for no explicable motive, not permitted the chance to talk and say Thank Yous through the trophy presentation.

Finally, simply this previous weekend, Rome endured its personal points when the ladies’s singles closing was scheduled at 11 pm on Saturday night time, relatively than be moved to the following day, as a consequence of a number of rain delays.

That created lower than ideally suited enjoying circumstances, together with a dearth of followers within the stadium, who ended up booing through the trophy ceremony perplexing each the champion Rybakina and the finalist Anhelina Kalinina.

The ceremony bought much more awkward after Rybakina was prompted to talk earlier than finalist Kalinina after which needed to immediate the on-court officers at hand her her trophy.

Madrid match organizers later apologized for the snafus at their occasion. Regarding the Rome singles closing, the WTA issued a press release defending the scheduling resolution citing ongoing inclement climate as the primary trigger.

“It’s not the will of the occasion nor the WTA to see a match go on because it did, but it surely was the precise factor to do, a WTA spokesperson instructed Reuters in a press release.

After the final two weeks, gamers, commentators, tennis journalists, and followers took to social media to first complain after which attempt to perceive why conditions like these appear to happen extra incessantly at WTA occasions relatively than ATP occasions.

Officially the worst trophy presentation i've ever seen, In my life!!!! Honesty i have to take a Xanax after these final three weeks!!! What the hell is going on!???

— Rennae Stubbs 🟦👍🏼 (@rennaestubbs) May 20, 2023

Somewhat unhappy to see that the ladies's closing of one of many largest @wta occasion of the season is beginning at 11pm. Nobody within the stands after all, and probably not cool for each gamers to begin such an necessary match so late...Why not put each women and men's finals tomorrow? #ibi23

— Alize Cornet (@alizecornet) May 20, 2023

These two WTA 1000s Madrid and Rome have been fiascos for ladies’s tennis. There aren't any excuses however many causes for the fiascos. Thoughts? 🤔(I've too many to share)

— Pam Shriver (@PHShriver) May 21, 2023

On Madrid, it’s no secret that organizers have lengthy favored the boys’s over ladies’s matches all through the historical past of the mixed Masters occasion.

The largest motive is probably going cultural, contemplating the occasion is held in Spain. Even if match organizers don’t assume they've bias for the boys over the ladies, points like “cakegate” and the doubles ceremony, revealed that these cultural biases are nonetheless very a lot in impact, even when unintentional. As they are saying, actions converse louder than phrases.

As far as Rome goes, whereas climate performed the primary issue within the scheduling issues, it’s pretty widespread at mixed occasions, regardless of the nation they're held in, that if scheduling points come up for no matter motive, ladies’s matches, not on a regular basis, however usually, lose out to males’s matches by way of getting pushed again, delayed, or scheduled at much less standard occasions or on smaller present courts. 

When it involves the topic of equal prize cash, to be honest, Madrid does give equal prize cash to each males's and girls's fields. Rome, in the meanwhile, nonetheless doesn't. That's not a cultural bias a lot as an absence of initiative, frankly, on Rome organizers' half to rectify the difficulty.

So why is all this taking place?

The largest motive is the persevering with notion, together with amongst many followers, that males’s matches are extra compelling than ladies’s matches. And, some, although not all, match organizers, and even broadcasting and streaming channel programmers, additionally nonetheless very possible have that inherent bias, whether or not they admit to it or not. 

So what could be performed?

In response to Shriver’s tweet, Diane Elayne Dees, famous tennis author and founding father of the Women Who Serve web site, provided up maybe the very best response and doable resolution.

The WTA isn’t going to do something to rectify the present (and long-standing) state of affairs, however the sadder actuality is that the gamers don’t seem inclined to do something, both. IMO, participant activism is important earlier than actual change takes place.

— Diane Elayne Dees (@WomenWhoServe) May 21, 2023

For those that compete on the WTA tour, taking a stand, which may embrace boycotting occasions, and even the WTA itself, to lastly deal with these long-standing points stands out as the closing resolution.

Yet it will take a united entrance, which might be difficult for lower-ranked gamers to conform to, contemplating they're those that profit probably the most from the large prize cash and rating factors on provide on the tour’s largest occasions, particularly if the tour’s largest stars usually are not entered at that exact time. 

Will the Madrid and Rome fiascos spark a name for actual change for the WTA and its tournaments worldwide?

Or will it simply conclude with one other vigorous dialogue that, sadly, ends as solely that, a dialogue.

Only time will inform.

Photo credit score: Mutua Madrid Open Facebook

Content Source: www.tennisnow.com