Over the weekend, former professional player and Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore had some less than enlightened things to say about the WTA and women's tennis in general. Speaking before the BNP Paribas Open Final between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, Moore said that he envies the WTA because it has "ride[n] on the coattails of men." He continued: "If I was a lady player, 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." Aside from Moore's troubling imagery, I do think Serena is quite happy that Roger Federer was born, if only to point to a living legend, a giant in the sport, who has fewer grand slam wins than she does.Following these remarks, Novak Djokovic was asked about them and, man, did he really mess this one up.
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Djokovic goes on a rambling discussion about equal pay and how he totally respects the women's players for fighting for what they deserve, a sentiment that comes dangerously close to "I think it's cute, good for them." He then talks about the inherent biological differences between men and women, and how that makes it difficult for female athletes. This sounds an awful lot like a guy saying "Good for them for being almost as good as us while getting their periods." These backhanded compliments pave the way for his real angle, which is that men deserve to be paid more because they are currently more popular. He doesn't explicitly say that women should be paid less—he clarified that if the current popularity climate were reversed, men should get paid less—but his comments read like he's miffed to be getting paid the same amount as Serena Williams.Novak Djokovic weighs in on Ray Moore's remarks, equal prize money, and…female hormones? This was…not his best work. pic.twitter.com/dauOSP7iru
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) March 20, 2016
This is all a very weird way of addressing Raymond Moore's comments. Djokovic said they were "not politically correct," but that came at the very end of his griping about hormones and equal pay. It is a delicate and relevant subject, as Djokovic said, but while tiptoeing around whatever point he was trying to make, he wound up looking like—at best—the clumsiest bull in a china shop."Women should fight for what they think they deserve and we should fight for what we think we deserve. I think as long as it's like that and there is data and stats available and information, you know, upon who attracts more attention, spectators, who sells more tickets and stuff like that, in relation that it has to be fairly distributed."