Battle of the sexes: How popular is women's tennis?

Tennis is probably the only mainstream sport played across the world in which equal importance is given to male and female professionals. With players on both the ATP and WTA tour getting equal prize money at most events, playing pretty much the same number of tournaments and getting the same amount of media coverage, tennis, though this may be rather dramatic, does stand out as a shining example of women’s empowerment. Women’s tennis has not had its shortage of champions over the decades, with legends like Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams dominating the game and having more success and enjoying more dominance than their male counterparts at the end of the day. While women do not possess the physical strength and athleticism to compete with men, women’s tennis has always found equal or more takers. Recently, there have been some murmurings about a possible decline in popularity in women’s tennis. Let’s try to examine some of the factors that have possibly led to this decline in popularity and also what works for the women’s game.

1. Women’s tennis is ‘boring’: An often heard complaint is that women’s tennis lacks the same intensity and power of the men’s game, which makes it boring to watch for spectators in the stadium and at home. While it is not doubted that women do possess less physical strength as compared to men, it would be unfair to suggest that this leads to a lack of intensity on court. Women do not possess the power game which the men do and with the slow death of serve-and-volley tennis, a number of them have struggled to adapt their game and sustain it to the long baseline rallies that dominate the game today. With the exception of perhaps Francesca Schiavone, there is a serious lack of inventive players who add a bit of flair to their games on tour, which has led to one-dimensional tennis and more a case of which player loses the match rather than which player grabs the opportunity and tries to win the match.

They brought with them a gripping rivalry for tennis fans to savour

2. Lack of rivalries in the sport: When I first started watching tennis around 10 years ago, women’s tennis was perhaps at its most exciting stage ever. The Williams sisters had started to dominate the game and in addition to never-seen-before levels of athleticism in women’s tennis and a powerful game, they brought with them a gripping rivalry for tennis fans to savour. With established champions like Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis also in the fray, 2003 saw the rise of the two Belgians – Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, both adapting their game to challenge the Williams sisters. 2004 saw the coming of the Russians, with Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva making their mark, thus ensuring a high level of competition at the top and thus, some epic rivalries. However, in the past couple of years, there has been a serious lack of the same in the sport. The two Belgians retired, Hingis made an unsuccessful comeback and the Williams sisters never played enough to sustain a rivalry with anyone on tour. Maria Sharapova was beset with injuries and while there were the likes of Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina who threatened to rule women’s tennis, none of them could match the consistency of their predecessors and faded away after a brief period at the top. Only recently has there been some sort of consistency at the top of the rankings with the Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova slowly building up a semblance of a rivalry among the three.

3. Standards have fallen: While I don’t mean to take anything away from the Williams sisters(Serena especially), the fact that they can enter major tournaments and Grand Slams after months off-tour and still win them, suggests that there is a lack of serious quality in the field. When Rafael Nadal took just a month off after the French Open in 2009, he found the gulf in class too much to handle on his comeback and struggled through the rest of the year. Another reason to suggest that the standards have fallen is the emergence of World No.1’s who have not yet won a Grand Slam. Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki have all been ranked at the top of women’s tennis despite never having won a Grand Slam. A player, to be called the best player in the world, must win the best and most hotly-competed tournaments in the world. The fact that there have been as many as three women who have got to the top without winning a Slam shows the lack of quality and unpredictability in the game, which is not always a good thing.

However, is all lost for women’s tennis? Not quite. As always, there are two sides to a story, and women’s tennis also has a couple of things going for it:

1. Variety: While this could be argued as a negative point, it has more positive impact than negative. The nine Grand Slams since the 2010 Australian Open have seen nine different winners, five of them first-time winners. It has often been argued that it is in this aspect where women’s tennis outscores men’s tennis, which has seen the top 3 of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer win 28 of the last 29 Grand Slams. Three-set tennis matches result in greater chances of upsets at tournaments, which results in different winners. The unpredictability and surprises of women’s tennis leaves fans on the edge of their seats throughout the tournament and engages spectators.

It is an undeniable fact that female tennis players and women’s tennis in general owes a part of its popularity to sex appeal

2. Sex Appeal: While this is a point that women may not be too happy with, it is an undeniable fact that female tennis players and women’s tennis in general owes a part of its popularity to sex appeal. In addition to talent and success on court, an engaging personality and attractiveness off the court forms a big part of the women’s game. Since a large percentage of tennis fans are male, there will naturally be more interest in the attractiveness of female players over men and this is where the women outscore their male counterparts. 1991 Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, in fact, caused major controversy a couple of years ago when he suggested that women tennis players’ roles were as much about ‘selling sex’ on court as it is about their sporting prowess. While that could be argued as going too far, it cannot be denied. More importantly, this is something that will always be present, however dire the situation gets with the quality of tennis and the competition involved, people will always pay attention to the sex appeal and it’ll be a constant draw to the women’s game.