Tennis 2016

Manufacturer released a statement saying a typical course would be 4-6 weeks, not 10 years :lol:

Russian authorities also saying they expect more athletes to test positive due to this medication. I suppose they too had a history of diabetes in the family.
 
Neutral said:
Manufacturer released a statement saying a typical course would be 4-6 weeks, not 10 years :lol:

Russian authorities also saying they expect more athletes to test positive due to this medication. I suppose they too had a history of diabetes in the family.
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:lol: you got a link to this?
 
I'm sure these athletes are looking for ways to gain even half a percent.

If this medicine had performance enhancing effects but wasn't on the banned list I'm not sure if you can say she did something wrong or if you can say that she was being smart.

I really don't believe her explanation though that she didn't know about its performance enhancing effects and that she needed it for medical purposes.
 
Neutral said:
So that perennial loser gets busted for doping and we have people trying to drag Serena Williams down.

Serena - LEGEND.
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I only highlighted her as an example of tennis' lack of enforcement over the years. No out of competition sample taken from Serena in 2 years is as good an example as you could get while the panic room incident would scream suspicion to anyone in their right mind yet the testers left and never got a sample. Shocking surely.
 
wr8_utd said:
If this is how bad Sharapova plays on drugs, how bad is she without it?

Also, poor Serena. Her easiest match of the year might be gone.
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Neutral said:
So that perennial loser gets busted for doping and we have people trying to drag Serena Williams down.

Serena - LEGEND.
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She's won every single grand slam, how many other women have done that in the Serena era?
 
Maria just got careless. Testing in tennis is pretty bad i.e. you're not tested as much as track athletes or cyclists.
Don't know if she deliberately took this drug for performance enhancing reasons, but doubt she's the only tennis player venturing into the 'grey area' by taking something that isn't illegal, but is still a bit iffy.
Nevertheless she was completely stupid not to know what is or isn't on the banned list. Also her team who are no doubt paid huge sums of money should be monitoring this stuff.

Reckon she'll probably get a year and that will be that.
 
RobinLFC said:
It's amazing how fast people bend this story to "she has taken PEDs all her life".
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:confused:

She was using PEDs for over a decade in fairness. Just because it hadn't been picked up on by the authorities doesn't change the fact it was a PED.
 
Brwned said:
:confused:

She was using PEDs for over a decade in fairness. Just because it hadn't been picked up on by the authorities doesn't change the fact it was a PED.
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I meant illegal PEDs, people act as if she's taken illegal substances for over a decade, i.e all the "take away all of her titles!" reactions, and it's simply not true. There's nothing wrong with taking legal PEDs, every top athlete tries to take as much advantages as possible.
 
RobinLFC said:
I meant illegal PEDs, people act as if she's taken illegal substances for over a decade, i.e all the "take away all of her titles!" reactions, and it's simply not true. There's nothing wrong with taking legal PEDs, every top athlete tries to take as much advantages as possible.
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Aye, I was just thinking this. Surely there's nothing wrong with an athlete saying "Yes, I take PEDs as long as they're not illegal, banned or damaging my long term health. This wasn't banned so I took it, now it is banned so I don't."
 
RobinLFC said:
I meant illegal PEDs, people act as if she's taken illegal substances for over a decade, i.e all the "take away all of her titles!" reactions, and it's simply not true. There's nothing wrong with taking legal PEDs, every top athlete tries to take as much advantages as possible.
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This just shows how fine the line is in terms of legality so I'm not sure it should really be the deciding factor. Ultimately it's the consumption of PEDs that's the issue in sport, the legal aspect is only a small part of it. The "cheating" element is in using drugs to enhance your performance - it's primarily a moral question, not a legal one. Hence the definition: "[to] act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage". It'd be quite surprising if she'd openly disclosed the fact she was taking this particular PED...and if she didn't, it's perfectly appropriate to call her a cheat.
 
sullydnl said:
Aye, I was just thinking this. Surely there's nothing wrong with an athlete saying "Yes, I take PEDs as long as they're not illegal, banned or damaging my long term health. This wasn't banned so I took it, now it is banned so I don't."
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While this is likely the case, it's just extremely too damaging to their reputation. Fans would kick off, they'd probably get booed at every event they go to.

While it is quite logical, fans won't see it that why. I personally don't blame athletes who are close yet don't cross the boundary. who But just because it's legal doesn't mean I and many won't view it as wrong.

I see it like tax avoidance. Not quite tax evasion but, as it's legal. However it's difficult not to see it in a negative light, even if I would consider doing the same thing.
 
Brwned said:
This just shows how fine the line is in terms of legality so I'm not sure it should really be the deciding factor. Ultimately it's the consumption of PEDs that's the issue in sport, the legal aspect is only a small part of it. The "cheating" element is in using drugs to enhance your performance - it's primarily a moral question, not a legal one. Hence the definition: "[to] act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage". It'd be quite surprising if she'd openly disclosed the fact she was taking this particular PED...and if she didn't, it's perfectly appropriate to call her a cheat.
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Yeah, probably alongside 100% of the other professional athletes. I agree with your whole post but are you going to be the one who doesn't try to enhance his performances and subsequently never win any major tournament? If you're long enough in that sort of business, your own morals start to fade away, not matter how important they are. You see people around you winning tournaments left and right who aren't even better than you but are using the right legal substances to become better - it wouldn't take long before you take the step to your first legal PEDs as well and once that first step is taken, every step becomes a little bit easier, especially if it means winning tournaments along the way.
 
What now for Maria, does she get banned and stop taking the drug to make a come back in the future or retire and continue taking the drug for health reasons?
 
wiz4231 said:
What now for Maria, does she get banned and stop taking the drug to make a come back in the future or retire and continue taking the drug for health reasons?
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She will likely be banned. She definitely wants to make a come back - no doubt about that. There are apparently similar drugs she can use (which are not banned) for her supposed condition so she doesn't have to continue taking the banned drug.
 
Bojan11 said:
Nadal a game away from going out to Zverev.
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Well well well. Went to sleep with it 2-5 in the final set. Glad Nadal took it in the end even if it sounded like a massive choke from the kid.

I only watched the first two sets, and even though he lost the first, I think Rafa has looked decent. Kei in the QFs now!
 
Is there anything wrong in what Djokovic said? I personally think he's correct tbh.
 
KM said:
Is there anything wrong in what Djokovic said? I personally think he's correct tbh.
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“I applaud them for that, I honestly do. They fought for what they deserve and they got it. On the other hand I think that our men’s tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s tennis matches. I think that’s one of the reasons why maybe we should get awarded more. Women should fight for what they think they deserve and we should fight for what we think we deserve."
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He's spot on.
 
KM said:
Is there anything wrong in what Djokovic said? I personally think he's correct tbh.
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Of course not. Mens sports tend to make more money not just in tennis so why not pay them more??! For example, if the men's tournament made £1m and the prize was £500k. You can't also make the women's tournament prize pot £500k if it only makes £500k!!!

I never understood this whole equal pay in sports thing! What they should look at is the percentage the prize money is compared to revenue that particular tournament makes.
 
To play devils advocate, tennis is different to other sports, whereby the men and women's game come essentially as a collective package.
 
saivet said:
To play devils advocate, tennis is different to other sports, whereby the men and women's game come essentially as a collective package.
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It doesn't have to be that way and they do play some tournaments separately. I think the statistics for those tournaments also show that the men bring in far more money.

I think that whatever organisation brings the most revenue to a tournament should earn more from that tournament. If one of them isn't pulling their weight then they need to improve upon what they're offering and try to attract more viewers and sponsors.
 
I imagine men do bring in more money.

In the grand slams they also pay best of 5, whereas women play best of 3. I think this is a better argument against equal pay at tennis grand slams.
 
Men generally work more and produce more value (in tennis). Equal pay would be discriminatory.
 
I can't believe the feminazis are having a go at Djokovic and calling him sexist. Ridiculous.

He's totally right. Also yeah women should play 5 sets. But could Serena Williams last 5 sets? She struggles with 3 half the time and does the old injury routine. Also doesn't play half the year. Maybe if the top women were actually dedicated to the calendar that more people would watch their events. Rather than showing up whenever they feel like it.
 
Do the organizers really want the women to play five sets? They struggle enough at it is to have the Grand Slams finished within the two weeks and I'm not sure the audience really wants to see women play for five sets.
 
What Djokovic said is absolutely spot on. 3 set vs 5 set argument is one thing but the attractiveness and popularity, which goes along with quality is one of the major reason for men getting paid lot higher. Feminazis may call it sexist but the absolute mediocrity which is on display in women's tennis apart from Serena is not worth watching usually. I can be very sure that if say men's Grand slam event is organized at a separate time compared to women's, the viewership of women's event will plummet.
 
Karolina Pliskova made the most finals appearance from the women game last year with 6. Serena made 5 and took half the year off. You don't see Federer or Djokovic doing that.

Somebody like Berdych made 5 ATP finals last year. There's no real consistency in the womens game. Even for somebody who gambles, I wouldn't want to predict the outcome of the womens game. The general quality is worse.

One set in a mens grand slam final lasts more than a womens grand slam final. So how is that exactly fair? The mens Wimbledon final was watched by twice as many people.
 
If we're talking only about income generated, then there's no doubt about pay equality being a bit... Off.

However, equal pay is something that has been in the game for a while now. While whether it's right or wrong is up for debate (I'm personally in the "meh" camp), but I'd argue that any plans & motions to undo what women have been campaigning for for decades would not only be an insult to those women, but also female athletes in general.

The men get paid enough as it is. The women get paid enough as it is. Do the men make more money for their company? Sure, but what equal pay symbolizes is more important than Djokovic getting another few mil a year.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
He's spot on.
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Does that point only apply to the womens game though? There's probably an argument that a proportion of the purse is determined by the popularity/draw of the players involved (regardless of their sex). The likes of Novak, Nadal, Federer who sell out all their matches, bring in the highest viewing figures probably deserve get a tad more for the interest they generate in the tournaments they are involved in.
 
Tommy said:
If we're talking only about income generated, then there's no doubt about pay equality being a bit... Off.

However, equal pay is something that has been in the game for a while now. While whether it's right or wrong is up for debate (I'm personally in the "meh" camp), but I'd argue that any plans & motions to undo what women have been campaigning for for decades would not only be an insult to those women, but also female athletes in general.

The men get paid enough as it is. The women get paid enough as it is. Do the men make more money for their company? Sure, but what equal pay symbolizes is more important than Djokovic getting another few mil a year.
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It's equal pay for equal work. What it 'symbolizes' doesn't matter. At the minute it doesn't help their image as they seem happy to take in the money which they didn't earn.

To be honest equal pay in sport is a load of nonsense. I've read a few of those articles which highlight the wage gap between men and women in football and totally ignore how much revenue the men's game generates which allows them to earn those ludicrous figures. I seriously doubt women's sports will ever earn as much as men because they simply aren't good enough and will never be a high enough standard to draw large crowds.
 
This is not 'pay', this is prize money. So organizers can fix the prize money as they want. I am all for pay equality but there is do doubt that men't tennis generated more money. If you were to hold separate GS for men and wen, the prize money won't be the same.
 
The biggest problem with womens sport is that the actual sports are designed to be played by men, which means the womens game suffers massively. People like sport for it's intensity and athleticism, and despite what anyone claims it's still primarily a display of athletic ability with a few constraints.

They need to change the rules, court/pitch sizes to actually make the games more appropriate for women. That would make the games worth watching in their own right, rather than making it into just a less athletic version of the mens game.
 
The debate is far more nuanced than which version of the sport is more popular. Prize money in tennis is a reward but also - like the gold medal in Olympics - a symbol for victory. If it's merely a function of popularity then Federer should earn more for his Grand Slam win than someone like Murray - that'd be ludicrous.

On every metric, men's tennis is undoubtedly superior but there are couple of gender-specific reasons for this. First, biologically men will always be stronger and faster; we cannot hold this against women. In Olympic boxing, both featherweight and heavyweight champions get the same gold (sadly, in professional boxing prize money is now almost entirely a function of popularity ). If we consider prize money as a symbol then equal pay is entirely justified.

Second, women across the world have found it difficult to access sport. The much smaller talent pool explains some of the inferiority. Equal pay is one way to compensate for inherently sexist societies which hinder women's tennis development. In such an unequal world, I think sport should take the lead even if it may seem unfair on principles of meritocracy.
 
Stringer said:
Do the organizers really want the women to play five sets? They struggle enough at it is to have the Grand Slams finished within the two weeks and I'm not sure the audience really wants to see women play for five sets.
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I wish the men didn't play 5 sets until the quarterfinals.
 
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