GILLES SIMON HAS refused to apologise for his claim that male tennis players deserve better pay than women, arguing many others support him.
The 27-year-old Frenchman argued against equal prizemoney in tennis on a French radio station earlier in the week.
Yesterday, after losing to Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-5) in the second round at Wimbledon, Simon reiterated his argument and added that he is not the only player who thinks men deserve more money in tennis.
“The 128 players (at Wimbledon) think like me, that’s for sure,” the 13th seed said.
Although Simon had initially argued that men should earn more because they generally play longer matches than women, the Frenchman explained that he believed women’s tennis is simple less entertaining and therefore deserves less money.
“I feel that men’s tennis is actually more interesting than women’s tennis,” Simon said. ”As in any business or anything, you just have to be paid just about that.
“It’s not because we play five sets and they are playing three.”
Simon also argued he supports equal rights for women but said more was needed to justify equal pay.
“If women’s tennis is more interesting than men’s tennis, if the price of the woman’s final is higher than the price of the men’s final, they will deserve to win more money than us,” the world number 13 said.
“That’s just the way it works. This is nothing new, I just feel like it’s fair. Just to say it has to be equal because there is a struggle in life in general, I’m not sure it’s a very good argument.”
