Encomium
Few hours from now, the Wimbledon 2016 trophy will be in her sweaty palms; so it seems, that could be her reason for voicing out that equal pay for male and female tennis players will be a fair demand.
Senera Williams who made her way through to the Wimbledon female final thrashing Russian’s Angelique Kerber in the fastest ever Wimbledon semi-final which ended 6-2. 6-0 in 48 minutes, recording her ninth career final at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
After the semi-final victory against Russia’s Elena Vesnina, the No 1 female tennis player, 34 said: “I don’t deserve to be paid less because of my sex.
“Basically my whole life I’ve been doing this. I haven’t had a life.
“I would like to see people – the public, the press, other athletes in general – just realise and respect women for who they are and what we are and what we do.”
BBC Sport had a totally opposite view and took to twitter to write… “Her match lasted just 48 minutes…but Serena Williams says female players deserve equal pay.”
Fans across the world did not find this welcoming as they sent hard criticism against the official BBC Sport Twitter accusing it of not helping to achieve equal rights within the sport with such tweet.
No sooner than it was posted, the tweet was deleted
When asked about the difference in pay for their male counterpart, Kerber, who will be on the same court with the world No.1 said: “We are giving everything on court, everybody. You never know if it’s two hours or, at the end, eight hours.”
Before this time, a reporter once asked what she makes of it when others talk about her as one of history’s greatest female athletes, she simply replied: “I prefer the word, one of the greatest ‘athletes’ of all time.” Cutting out the female in the question.
Williams has constantly lent her voice in the fight to realize equal pay for women in tennis.
However, earlier this year, former Indian Wells tournament chief Raymond Moore had to resign after making a comment which sparked criticism saying women were “riding on the coat tails” of the men’s game and have to “get down on their knees” to thank their male counterparts.
The world No 1 male tennis player, Novak Djokovic also goofed when he shared his opinion that men should be paid more because they attract larger audiences. Djokovic was quick to apologise the following day, saying: “I don’t make any differences between the genders. I am for equality in the sport.”
- Seyifunmi for encomium.ng
