Opinion | Gender equality: no safe ground exists when thorny issue arises
Novak Djokovic learned the hard way that expressing his opinion can open a whole different can of worms, even though he had a fair point to make
There really is no safe ground if you end up on the wrong side of the gender equality debate. Of course, you can be a fool, in which case you deserve a fool’s fate. And yet you can be profound and sympathetic and still be doomed, as we know too well.
Every comment is potentially volatile, loaded with swift and forceful recriminations. The controversy in tennis last week in regards to equality between female and male players has been simmering for quite some time. All it took was foolish fuel to ignite it.
One week ago, 69-year-old Raymond Moore was a largely anonymous former professional tennis player from South Africa who was the chief executive of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
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Located in California’s Coachella Valley, which encompasses plush locales like Palm Springs and La Quinta, the sprawling complex plays home to the largest combined male and female two-week event outside of the four grand slams.
A collector of fine wines, Moore was very much at home in Coachella and claimed that even after being intimately involved in the event for 25 years, he had no plans to step down. And then he was asked a question about the WTA, the women’s tour, and said they were living a charmed life riding the coattails of the men.
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“If I was a lady player,” he added, “I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born because they have carried this sport. They really have.”
Within minutes the story spread like wild fire; tournament CEO says down on your knees women! Hopefully, Moore was four or five bottles into his fine wine collection at the time because if he wasn’t drunk then his comments were completely inexplicable and indefensible.