2015 women's tennis thread

[shivfan]

Venus Williams continues her comeback from the setbacks she receives from Sjogren's syndrome to roll back the years and win at Auckland, beating Wozniacki in the final....

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/10/wta-auckland-venus-williams-woniacki-report

Only three women have won a WTA event at an older age. Venus is 34, and still winning....

Heather Watson continued her recovery from glandular fever to win her second WTA title at Hobart:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/17/heather-watson-australian-open-hobart-title

[Mad for Chelsea]

delighted for both of them. Venus in particular has had a really nasty few years, so would be pleased to see her bounce back and have a decent year in 2015.

Shame to see Heather struggling physically today though. Hope it's not a return of the dreaded glandular fever. She has more than enough weapons to beat Pironkova fairly comfortably IMO, but the energy levels just weren't there today. Great win for her last week though, and while I'm not sure she'll ever have the power to make it all the way to the top, I see no reason why her game shouldn't take her to top 20, maybe even top 10.

[Silver]

Really nice victory speech from Venus afterwards as well, what a class act she is. Is she fully clear of Sjogren's now?

Was a shame about Watson, especially seeing the bagel come out. I hope the lack of energy levels are nothing sinister. I agree she could be a top 20 player and like her work ethic. Pironkova can be a very tough opponent depending (heavily) on form though.

[shivfan]

Wow, what a final...Serena beats Sharapova 6-3,7-6 to win her 19th Grand Slam singles title.

All tournament, Serena was suffering from fever, flu, cold, cough, etc, and still battled through to win!

IMHO, this was her best ever title, because of the illness she had to fight. It should rank her as one of the two greatest women to have played the game in the Open era, alongside Steffi Graf.

[Guest]

Serena Williams is just phenomenal!

The best all round player in the history of women's tennis. No question about it.

I hope she goes on to break Steffi's record.

[CaledonianCraig]

It was a cracking match. You can't help but admire Serena although I was rooting on Maria. Serena has an insatiable drive and hunger for success. I mean just look at her reaction on winning her 19th slam title? She was bouncing around the court like a youngster winning her first title. Maria just lacks the weapons to take Serena down.

[Guest]

Just awesome from Serena.

I like how she takes being the best out there in her stride. It's ridiculous!

[Born Slippy]

19 slams is incredible. Better than ever aged 33! Would be great if she could finally do the CYGS. That would round off her career.

[greengoblin]

serena is a great player, its a shame about her utterly obnoxious personality.

[djkbrown2001]

It's interesting when one speaks about giving equal prize money. The women's final had a higher TV ratings than the men's final. Every time The williams play they get a high TV ratings. I think only Fedal matches can compete with the williams matches in terms of tv ratings. The presence of serena in the final was instrumental in the higher tv ratings. It was twice as the ratings from last year's and the previous year ladies finals.

[Guest]

It's interesting when one speaks about giving equal prize money.  The women's final had a higher TV ratings than the men's final. Every time The williams play they get a high TV ratings. I think only Fedal matches can compete with the williams matches in terms of tv ratings.  The presence of serena in the final was instrumental in the higher tv ratings. It was twice as the ratings from last year's and the previous year ladies finals.

That's very interesting.

Could you clarify which TV ratings? UK? US?

I wouldn't be totally surprised if it were the case because, despite Socal's attempts to force the contrary view down our throats, the majority of tennis fans judging by the response across various forums find the Djokovic-Murray matchup an absolute stinker.



emancipator

[djkbrown2001]

It's the Australian tv ratings I will find the link and poSt it here.

[kingraf]

More interesting would be the disparity. By logic, a 17 million audience (like the 2012 women's final) for a two hour match is going to draw less ad revenue than a 16 million audience for a five hour match.

[djkbrown2001]

According to the website Sports Media Watch, the Serena Williams-Maria Sharapova outpaced the men’s final between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray on ESPN.

Statisfaction: Zeroing in on Serena Williams' Greatness

The women’s final, between No. 1-ranked Williams and No. 2-ranked Sharapova, drew a .7 overnight rating on ESPN, while the men’s final drew a .5.

The women’s final rating was up 40 percent from last year’s final between Li Na and Dominika Cibulkova, and it also topped Williams last final appearance in 2010, which earned a .6 overnight rating.

The Djokovic-Murray final was down from last year’s Nadal-Wawrinka final, which drew a .6 overnight.

[djkbrown2001]

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2015/02/australian-open-ratings-serena-sharapova-espn-overnights-djokovic-murray/

[djkbrown2001]

That's true kinggraf. But one would have thought that Andy Murray would be a big draw in Australia. Also dojo bring a 4 time winner should have been a big draw.

[Guest]

Be interesting to see global viewing figures.

Williams and Sharapova being the faces of the women's game no doubt helped those figures. Least with the Women's game Bouchard could become the new face of their game.

However, the Men's game needs new faces.

[kingraf]

Would think though then that the men would have generated more money? Rationally, the women need to either
- attract a more lucrative audience
or
- absolutely destroy the men ratings wise to be generating the same income.

[djkbrown2001]

Regarding bouchard. She will have to win a few GS before she can become the face of tennis. But I guess with the Anglo saxon bias if she wins one I guess that will suffice.

[shivfan]

Good to see you again, djk!

I can't say I'm surprised by the ratings...it seems to be only in places like India and the UK that tennis fans are only interested in the men. Worldwide, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are just as much a draw as Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, and in quite a lot of countries, those two women are more of a draw than those two men.

Serena was rusty in her opening match at Indian Wells, but battled through. Heather Watson is on a good run, and is a set up against A-Rad.

[Mad for Chelsea]

You can add France to that shivfan unfortunately. Last year, the Sunday of the RG men final, and thus the day after the women's final, L'Equipe had slightly less than a full page about Sharapova's win, whereas they had at least 6 pages on the build-up to the Nadal-Djokovic showdown. They also had a bit about the doubles but considering a French pairing was involved that's not surprising...

Considering this is the main sports newspaper in France (and the only one which covers sport to even a reasonable degree), and that the women's match between Halep and Sharapova was one of the best matches of last year (much better than the men's final turned out to be certainly...) I found this a truly depressing state of affairs. I suspect the US are more interested in the women because, well, they're doing rather better than their men. I suspect if GB had a female player regularly reaching slam semis and finals and winning the odd one people would be more interested too. Generally the UK do alright when it comes to recognising women's sports (think cricket, Sky are pretty much the only TV chanel to broadcast the women's game, England are the most professional outfit, obviously people like Jess Ennis, Victoria Pendleton, etc. get massive recognition).

Overall though it's obvious that we're a long way from achieving equality in sport, though tennis is more advanced than most. Swimming also does pretty well (with respect to prize money and visibility, though for some reason great female swimmers don't get the recognition of the male counterparts). Athletics is OK regarding visibility, but prize money distribution is sexist, and again female athletes rarely get worldwide recognition (though many will become stars in their own country, which is something).

Anyway, straying off topic a bit, apologies...

Great win for Heather Watson against Radwanska, carrying her excellent form so far this year. Serve still a bit of a concern (biggest weakness in her game), but a fine fine win. Feel Heather could do with getting a good run at a slam (4R or better), hopefully it will come.

[summerblues]

Overall though it's obvious that we're a long way from achieving equality in sport, though tennis is more advanced than most.

Tennis is pretty much the only big time sport where women earn comparable money to men.  I remember looking at the list of top 100 earning sportspeople from maybe a year or two ago.  On the list there were 6 tennis players and those were split 3-3 between men and women (Roger, Rafa, Nole, Serena, Sharapova and Li Na).

All remaining 94 from other sports were men, and I do not expect it will change significantly in the near term future.

[shivfan]

Track and field is an example of near equality....

While Usain Bolt is a global superstar in his own right, let's look at everybody else. US female quartermilers Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards are US dollar millionaires, while male Olympic gold medallist Kirani James is not - yet!

But back to tennis....

Serena was back to her best last night, cruising to victory over Zarina Diyas.

[Born Slippy]

Why is equality in sport (at least in the way described) something we should be aiming for though? If there was a woman good enough to play premier league football then I would be all in favour of her being able to do it (and be paid the same as a male equivalent). However, I struggle to see a valid reason why women's football generally should be given equality.

[shivfan]

Serena had to work hard to beat Sloane Stephens....

Heather Watson went out in three sets to Suarez Navarro.

[temporary21]

Equality in sports is only possible if theres equal interest in the male and female sides to it. Good example is athletics, theres a lot of interest, just as much in fact in womens athletics as men, something true of a lot of primarily olympic sports.
You coudlnt give equal coverage/pay in football though because, to put it brutally, theres nowhere near as much interest in the womens game.
You can encourage people into the womens side if the game, like the bbc does for sure, but you cant force it down peoples throats if they simply arent as keen on it.

[dummy_half]

temp

I think there are even a few sports (artistic gymnastics, ice skating) where the woman's side of competitions is more popular. It is interesting though that those where there is equality or near equality are sports in which male and female competitors often compete in the same event - tennis obviously has the slams and a few other parallel ATP and WTA tournaments, the athletics grand prix events are mixed, as are most swim meets.

In some ways I quite like women's football - yes, technically it is not of the same standard as the men's game, and the players don't have the strength and power to play 'long ball' tactics, but they still appear to respect the game and the officials, and play with none of the histrionics that so infect the upper echelons of the mens game.

[temporary21]

In mixed events there is easy interest in the womens game because its "bigged up" the same. They get the same sponsor money pool as the men, which can go into developement. Theyre equal in interest through good advertising and clever business decisions. They understand that mixing them up in the same venues lets them share a big atmosphere, which has a snowball effect.

To go to a womens game in football you need a separate ticket on a separate day, usually in a much smaller and less exciting stadium.

[shivfan]

Well done to Halep for winning at Indian Wells, after Serena pulled out of the semis with a knee injury.

Madison Keys and Eugenie Bouchard go out early, but Serena cruises through to the next round of Miami, though it was harder than the scoreline suggests....

Venus continues her comeback by dispatching Stosur in two hard-fought sets.

[shivfan]

Serena pulls off a hard-fought win against Halep, taking the match 7-5 in the third and final set...into the final against Suarez Navarro.

[shivfan]

Wow, that was brutal...Serena beats Suarez Navarro at two and love to win the title in Miami.

[shivfan]

Sloane Stephens knocks out 15th seed Venus Williams, and will face Watson next.

[temporary21]

No idea they were playing? How low is Stephens now for that to be a 1st round

[shivfan]

Venus bounces back, to win her first WTA tour title since 2010....the Wuhan Open, at the grand old age of 35.

[greengoblin]

Shivfan, do you enjoy talking to yourself?

[sirfredperry]

Venus bounces back, to win her first WTA tour title since 2010....the Wuhan Open, at the grand old age of 35.

Also, Venus showed her fitness having had to come through two exhausting matches in the quarter and semi final.

[Guest]

Venus bounces back, to win her first WTA tour title since 2010....the Wuhan Open, at the grand old age of 35.

Also, Venus showed her fitness having had to come through two exhausting matches in the quarter and semi final.

Konta narrowly lost to the winner Venus Williams in the quarter final after leading 5-3 in the final set but succumbing to tiredness and a little mental exhaustion.

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