Tennis: Marion Bartoli says equal pay for males and females in the game is fair

Marion Bartoli believes female tennis players deserve parity with their male counterparts when it comes to prize money and thinks asking men to play three sets is the perfect compromise.

Since 2007 male and female tennis players have been earning the same for winning Grand Slam tournaments, but there still remains a disparity in pay when it comes to other tournaments.

Critics of equal pay in tennis say women should play best-of-five sets if they want to earn the same but Bartoli believes asking the men to play best-of-three is a solution that would suit everyone.

I retired because of a shoulder injury and the amount of training and stress we are putting our bodies through.

“Maybe the solution is decreasing the men’s time of play instead of increasing the women’s time of play,” the former Wimbledon champion told Sky Sports News HQ. “I’m not sure if women are made in a way where they can play in five sets.

Stress

“I retired because of a shoulder injury and the amount of training and stress we are putting our bodies through by playing just three sets is such that I’m not sure playing five sets would be a step in the right direction.

“I think sometimes the men can play three sets and just play maybe the final of a grand slam in five rather than the whole tournament in five sets because it’s gruelling for them as well.

“When you see Rafael (Nadal) getting injured over and over again and Andy with his back problem you can see that professional tennis is really hard on your body.

“It’s very difficult to play year in year out and remain injury free. I think the men would be happy to play the final in five and the rest of the matches in three. Sometimes it is very difficult for them to recover from playing five sets in 48 hours.”

Bartoli was speaking at the Transforming Sport Women’s Sport conference at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Thursday which also featured tennis coach and GB Fed Cup captain Judy Murray.

Comfortable

Murray believes more female coaches can help boost participation and retention of young females playing tennis.

“We need more female coaches across all sports but in my sport we need to grow the numbers of girls taking up the game and I feel very strongly that more female coaches will actually encourage that,” Murray said.

“There are a lot of younger girls who are often not always comfortable with male coaches who they don’t know but I think it’s not just at entry level it’s about retention.

Females understand better the needs and emotions and everything that females go through.

“Females understand better the needs and emotions and everything that females go through. That’s not to say we don’t need male coached because of course we do I just think we need more females at entry level and at the retention stage.

“We also need more working at the top end of the game so there needs to be a clear pathway for female coaches to progress should they wish to do so.”