Foot-faulting the politically correct brigade

Is it just me or has society become so politically correct that we often fall victim to the modern trend of trying to please everyone? Monday at Wimbledon provided the perfect example. On a day known as “Manic Monday”, organisers had a tough job scheduling all 16 of the combined men’s and women’s fourth round matches. So they took the decision to stage four men’s matches and two women’s in the available six slots on the two main courts: Centre Court and Court No 1.

And it didn’t take long for the chiefs of the All England Club to be accused of sexism over their scheduling decisions.

“It’s equal prize money so why not equal representation on Centre Court and Court One?” Chris Evert asked BBC radio.

“Instead of four men’s matches and two women’s, I would like to see it three and three, and I think any woman would like to see it that way.”

Evert is right, it is equal prize money, but there are two fundamentals flaws in her feeble stab at the organisers. A, Wimbledon is a show and the organisers hold the right to decide which act goes where in order of staging a spectacle worthy of the cause, and B, she mentions nothing about the gross discrepancies between the time men and women spend out on the court in earning the same money.

In the men’s draw, there were Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who happen to hold between them 48 Grand Slam titles of which 14 came at Wimbledon. They have dominated the men’s game for over a decade – no one outside these four have held the world No 1 ranking since 2004.

Compared to who was left in the women’s section, or who even started, there wasn’t much comparison. Without Serena Williams the draw lacked a superstar and more than half of the last-16 line-up aren’t household names. Nonetheless, former champions Venus Williams and local favourite Johanna Konta were afforded exposure on the top courts.

But despite the sexism row, unseeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova didn’t mind at all playing on lowly Court No 18.

“I enjoy watching men’s tennis more. I think also for the spectators it’s more enjoyable to watch because it’s such a name like Federer, Murray, huge names, and I think they deserve obviously to be on Centre Court and Court One,” said Rybarikova.

“I’m happy to be on any court because I’m right now in Wimbledon so I really don’t care which court I play. Sometimes girls win like 6-1, 6-2, and sometimes it’s boring.”

Straight from the horse’s mouth.

And just to touch on how unfair both genders earning the same prize money are, but the men having to play the best of five sets and the women only three, Nadal battled for almost five hours in his loss to Gilles Muller and earned £147 000, the same amount as Croatian Ana Konjuh, who was wiped off the court by Williams in two sets that hardly took an hour.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Chrissie.