Men's Final Day at Wimbledon

Once again, on Wimbledon 'Final' Day or Wimbledon 'Men's Final' day, the issue of whether women's tennis can be taken seriously has been raised once more with gusto.

In various right-wing fascist media outlets which spout misogynistic crap as their daily output the issue of whether women's tennis is worth watching as a sport in itself or is a 'decorative add-on' to the men's tennis has actually been made. Yes, in the summer of 2011.

The main tenet of the argument is that men play for longer. This is not always the case. When BBC1 showed the statistics for the previous men's finals where Nadal had won they displayed an interesting fact. Very rarely had he had to play a four set match, and not one five set match had been presented in the men's final. I can remember several occasions where the women's final has gone into three sets and has been two hours. With the men's final today running just over two hours there isn't much difference when you sit down and think sensibly about it.

The other argument put is that men are stronger than women and hit the ball harder. Therefore they should be paid more and respected more. This is utter nonsense. Not completely, I admit. But women play to the best of the agility and strength. So do men. Therefore they are both putting 100% into their game. Therefore they should be respected equally.

I personally watch both female and male tennis and can't bear to hear any sexism of this kind. There are many sports where female and male sports stars are respected equally and no fuss is made at all, such as swimming or running. Perhaps the attire the girls wear (skirts and dresses are increasingly the norm) are to blame for the obsessive tabloid interest and sexist comments. This wouldn't explain why female swimming stars don't receive this treatment in the media though.

One issue which I would like to see changed is the fuss made over the men's final when there is hardly any fuss made over the women's final. Or perhaps have them both on the same day. I don't remember seeing the same build up on the television before the women's final yesterday, nor do I recall seeing celebrities lining up to watch Sharapova in the same way they queued for Nadal.

It makes me sad to hear such nasty vile comments when there are such talented female tennis players out there who deserve just as much respect as the men.