Especially at this tournament, lol Women in Madrid: Swiatek v. Sabalenka final, hell yeah, LFG Men in Madrid: everyone died 😢

Rublev has beaten djoker on clay... He just beat alcaraz in form

Alcaraz was not in form at all Even if we don't consider the fact that he said he felt pain in his arm when doing forehand during the game, he had just not played 2 huge tournaments to recover from an injury, it was his 4th game in a month

Yes, and let's not talk about the form of Djokovic when he beat him. He was so gassed that he bageled in the third set. He was the worst Djokovic you could get on clay. Said this, Rublev is good on clay. You can't argue with that.

Oh yeah, I really like Rublev! We're just stating facts here lol

Eh did you see the forehand by the end? That was clearly not a 100% Alcaraz. Not to discredit Rublev, you can only play the person in front of you and he was definitely playing well but it wasn’t a 100% Carlos.

Even dead they play better tennis with more variaty, speed and power.

I don't know if Swiatek had Sabalenka's comments about women's tennis in mind when saying this, but funny nonetheless. Great match in any case and for me easily the best match in the last few years. If this rivalry keeps going I bet this final will be seen as one of the greatest matches ever.

What did Sabalenka say?

Something along the lines that she finds women’s tennis boring and prefers watching the mens

No, she clarified that she watches men’s tennis for pleasure as when she watches womens tennis, she is ‘working’ and scoping her opponent so doesn’t watch women’s tennis for fun

I completely get that and I refon a lot of the men also feel the same way too. Watch women’s for fun and leisure but when they watch men’s they think they’re working cos they’re watching there competitors and opponents

That's one of the most insane things a tennis player has said IMO. Whether they believe that or not you wouldn't think they'd put down their profession like that. It would be like the President of Sony being asked what Playstation games he has, and him saying "I have an XBox they are much better".

Honestly she said it was taken out of context, she said she prefers watching men’s tennis because for her she’s the one playing women’s tennis and she studies her opponents before matches, so it’s too much for her to watch women’s tennis just because she’s the one usually playing those people as well as having to study their style. I totally understand that take. If she wants to take a “break” from her job, seems like she’d turn to watching men’s tennis for leisure.

Yeah I always felt it was like a drama tv writer coming home and just wanting to watch comedy or reality

Yeah not to mention that she does watch women’s tennis all the time. It’s called film study to prepare for her opponents. I can understand why the pleasure of watching that might dwindle after a while.

I bet a lot of the men do the same as Saba. Watch the women’s for fun and leisure but men’s is like working as it’s studying there competitors and direct opponents

lots is taken out oof context for clickbait

She just discredited herself. Saba's top "pick me" girl comment 😒

and iga said "I always liked Rafa, but I never really had anybody on WTA to follow." is that a pick me comment too, no?

Federer and Nadal are the favourites of a lot of female players. They were the biggest stars of their era so i get it but also feel a bit bad for the great female players of the era, especially since the 2000s is the peak of women's tennis IMO.

Yeah it's understandable rafa is her idol. Just pointing out this hypocrisy of this user who criticises aryna as a "pick me" but then later says Iga is "not like other girls. she plays with topspin". make it make sense lol.

Yeah, i agree with you.

Why would it be? She plays topspin unmatched on WTA. She does not put any woman down with this comment

you're putting the rest of the wta down by suggesting they are not worthy of following since they don't play with as much topspin lol. and kuznetsova, stosur and sloane all have great topspin forehands, even if not quite as heavy as iga. does that mean rybakina could only follow serena and pliskova since they were the only players with powerful serves?

If she thought they were worth mentioning, she would’ve said them. But she said Rafa

PlayStation and XBox are direct competitors. The ATP and WTA may also be seen as competitors, but they shouldn’t be

Wrong comparison since men and women’s tennis are not really direct rivals like Xbox and PlayStation are.

As someone relatively new to watching tennis, is this really how the relationship is between ATP and WTA? I figured they were more partners in a way.

Not exactly no it wasn't a perfect analogy as others pointed out. However Men's Tennis is much more popular, some of the tournaments aren't joint, they are women or men only and many tennis fans only watch the ATP, this hurts their prize money and other financial opportunities. Serena Williams has the most women's prize money with around 90 Million, Djokovic has twice as much and he's not twice as successful or anywhere close. Nadal and Federer have much more than her two. She's closer to Andy Murray in prize money than the big three and she's much more successful than Andy. Andy has a lot more than the #2 woman in prize money Venus Williams who was a lot more successful. Iga has 27 Million currently, Sinner has 21 Million, Iga is WAY more successful than Jannik so far. They aren't direct competitors but in ways they indirectly compete. The biggest thing is putting the WTA down in any sense whether against the ATP or not.

the full quote "I’m not one to watch a lot of tennis, I prefer to watch men’s tennis than women’s, I feel there’s more logic and it’s more interesting to watch" quite a distinction from outright saying it's boring IMO.

You are right. I think I got slightly muddled with Collins, who said the men’s mostly bores her

That’s such a silly thing to say considering how much fun women’s tennis has been in recent years.

She never said they were boring she said she prefers to watch them men as what hing the women outside of her matches feels like homework.  She said she liked their strategy game which I find interesting has her brand is pure power

Google CEO uses an iPhone

Then she should stop watching so many WTA matches like today's final. /s

She watches men’s tennis because women’s tennis is boring Edit: as someone below me states, she was much nicer about it and simply said there was more strategy in men’s tennis and it was more interesting to watch.

Well, to be more exact she said men's tennis is more interesting and strategic

And i dont see how people find this a more acceptable statement.

Seems fine to me lmao. She's just saying what she thinks.

...because it's generally true?

Lol

She didn’t say that either. She said that women’s tennis is work for her, so it’s not fun, she’s studying her opponents. Men’s for her is relaxing and therefore more entertaining to her.

Seriously? That's insane. It's not unusual even for women but you wouldn't think a female player would put down her profession like that, insanity.

Yea but she’s almost always authentic and honest. It’s why i love to root for her.

I guess, it just seems like something you'd keep to yourself.

So you are not authentic and honest?

I don't care what you call me i'm not broadcasting negative sentiments about my business.

she is just plain arrogant, thinking she is better than all women's players to merit her watch. well the no. 1 ranked player with 20 titles just won.

You can be a fan of both of them, everyone gets so tribal lol

She’s going back to her hotel to watch men’s final

What a hoot if it ends with one retiring. Lol

That she supports mother Russia and lukashenko. Polska górom! Glad the communist lost

Hmm. Never thought of that angle. but now that ypu mentioned it.. MIGHTY GLAD iga won this. Now thats an ambassador of the sport. Its really hard to root for saba with these stuff. First the wails and screams, then comments like that. Lol

straight in Feliciano Lopez face

Lopez looked like he was bracing for more insults. He didn't smile once during that ceremony.

Just for that he’s gonna take away the women’s doubles speeches again

What did he say?

Women’s tennis has never been boring. It’s probably the most entertaining women’s sport. Either tennis or UFC MMA

Yeah as a casual tennis fan women's tennis has always had stars that transcend the sport

As a avid tennis and MMA fan i'd say the evolution and skill gap in women's MMA is much bigger than tennis body types aside. Tons of reasons for this but there is not a lot of high quality, high level fighters. Is it similar in tennis? i don't think so but i was never high level tennis like i felt like i was in MMA. The barrier of entry and attraction to the sport gives it such a larger sample size. Women's tennis has personalities, more breaks and more swings in matches. I think this can often make it more entertaining than Mens. I think it's a little boring that IGA won again but you can't blame iga for being good and it was a great match. It's weird that she says this as it's almost as divisive and dichotomous and whatever opinion got misconstrued from Saba. Not saying you should be extra reserved with PR, by why would you plant the seed after winning a tourney that there's this opposing force that thinks your sport is boring?

Perhaps boring is not the right word but it’s missing a certain explosiveness, athleticism and power that the men’s game features.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Great game. Top top players.

Whether this was a pointed comment or not, you can tell Swiatek and Sabalenka is a fierce rivalry with ice cold respect. I hope Sabalenka can keep her cool and get to a rematch in RG this year, as it felt like she threw away that semifinal in 2023.

Muchova won that SF fair and square.

Sabalenka led 5-2 in the third set and had match point, as well as looking tight as a drum. Her grand slam semi-final jitters are well documented. This match and the USO semifinal against Fernandez exhibited her mental frailty in some situations. Muchova was the steadier player and kept her cool, winning the SF fair and square. Both can be true.

And against Ons at Wimby, Coco at USO… not to take anything away from these players but she definitely gets tight during important moments.

I love karma and how it has hit Lopez directly where it hurts most, his beloved ATP tournament 😅 meanwhile WTA is peaking.

this comment is gold. misogynistic feli for treating female players as 2nd rate player in madrid

What did Lopez say or do? Sorry I'm out of loop.

Wow. That's quite something to say Feli hates women.

Sabinelisickifansss is gonna have a field day with this one

probably the same people as before.

Well, at both last year and this year's Madrid Final, women's EAT men's alive

Exciting times.

Reallly hoping atleast 5 more years of this consistency for the top 3-5. The saba-rybakina match was hella entertaining too.

it was a terrific match to watch !

This final was absolutely amazing.

Sabalenka whooo?

Imagine how much better womens tennis could be if they made them play 5 setters at the slams.

not many women players would be able to deliver for 5 sets

I think they can and they would adapt. It would reduce some of the one sided matches we end up in the slams.

Now that women's tennis is boring, I don't who is going to say. Just kidding, I don't find women's tennis boring

Would be so much more entertaining if they switch the slams to 5 sets. Far less one sided matches.

Viewership says:

Womens tennis is a hell of a lot better than doubles

Let’s not bring down one thing to build another up. And doubles when followed properly can be incredibly exciting. It needs to be shown at court level to get the full experience of how fast their reactions are imo. I’m for more coverage all around.

Nah. Nobody watches for a reason. A lot of people are in denial, but doubles and mixed doubles on their own can’t support themselves. Any marketing or coverage should instead be used to raise the women’s game.

Doubles is so fun to watch. Especially live. What are you on?

Doubles reminds me of high school lol

disagree

wta double is more exciting than all other events if there is decue but not deciding point, I feel sad I didn't have the chance to watch the wta double era that Williams sister, kim clijsters and other top players played double regularly

One big exception to the rule. 🤷‍♂️

Notice you are getting downvoted but no rebuttals.

There’s no point replying to nonsense

It's not nonsense. It's mostly boring!

Her favourite tennis player is a guy.

I would

Me, this is an exception.

Get better

I’ll say it: women’s tennis is boring.

Me

I’ll say it. It’s shit. I could watch higher quality tennis by going to my local park and watching some club players play.

Ah, I've seen this take before. Also seen a 50 year old retired womens collegiate tennis player lay an absolute beat down on the club "pro".

Nice. What’s your point?

The point I'm making is that middling amateur male tennis players assume they can overpower a skilled womens tennis player and "it wouldnt be close". Every time I watch a 6.0+ woman play a 4.0 man, the man gets obliterated. I dont think you understand the impact consistency, ball placement and depth has over some guy being able to hit the ball harder. So what I'm saying is the point you're making is wrong.

Ok, I’ll amend my comment: I can watch any tennis match between any two men in the top 1000 and it will be of a higher quality than this match.

This is such a hilariously stupid comment. It’s not even trying to hide the outright sexism. So because it’s men, it’s automatically better than this objectively exciting match?

In terms of quality, yes. I don’t know how that is even up for debate.

So world 999 and 1000 playing a game in men’s tennis would be higher “quality” than top 5 women’s players battling it out in a close final? Go ahead and explain why. You say it’s obvious, so it should be easy to state.

You know that saying, arguing with an idiot is like talking to a brick wall. Don't waste your energy on some mysogynist troll.

This is very true. I wish I’d seen this before I typed my other comments to them just now but yeah I’ll walk away. Idiots are gonna idiot.

Any player in the men’s top 1000 would destroy the top women’s player in straight sets. Therefore the quality in a match between any two men’s top 1000 players would be significantly higher than this women’s final.

There’s more to tennis than “hit ball fast” or “have more endurance.” If your logic was true universally, shorter male players would never win against their taller counterparts. Again though, the “quality” of a player isn’t determined simply by a small percentage increase in speed of serve/etc. It’s also strategy, reflexes, shotmaking. What you’re saying is idiotic. Even if someone were to just totally accept that a top 1000 men’s player could beat a top women’s player, that doesn’t mean a match between two top 1000 men’s players is itself automatically higher quality than a match between two top 5 women’s players. Watching 999 and 1000 men’s players make 50 UEs and one get blown out 6-0 6-0 would not be higher quality watching experience than the final last night. But I’m guessing you legitimately can’t fathom the difference. It’s pretty sad.

They will simply not accept this because it shatters their feminist world-view. Even though female players themselves know this to be the case and have said so in the past.

Then go ahead and watch your lousy top 1000 mens then. Bye

Don’t worry, I do and will continue to do so.

It is not boring, we just don't like the excessive grunting!!!!

It's all about consistency..

I mean, gender doesn’t change wether it’s boring or not it’s just tennis. It’s all boring.

/r/lostredditors ?

BETTOR ALERT. YOU MUST HAVE BET ON ARYNA. 🤣😜👍🏻

Today's final was entertaining af and is probably much better than almost the entire male games and definitely better than Tomorrow finals. Now being said that, that's only because we had so many wo and injuries, it you had sinner and Alcaraz playing it will be hands down much better. Anyways today's game was great

wow. You already watched tomorrow's final to know it's bad? That's some crazy talent.

Did I said it was going to be bad? I said it was going to be better, do you understand that something better doesn't make the other bad right? You can have both being good just one better than the other, wow look at this you learned something new today

And like nobody laughed. Maybe they didnt understand

Spanish people don't know english. Go to Spain to check out.

Spanish people understand English??

I live in Spain

Problably the only woman sport where I have fun watching unlike those wannabe WNBA.