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 Venus Williams calls for equal pay at Grand Slams
Posted: Tuesday June 23, 1998 08:40 PM
LONDON (Reuters) -- Venus Williams breezed through her first-round match at Wimbledon Tuesday and then breezily called for her tennis sisters to demand more money for the love they inspire. "Everybody loves the ladies," said the player named after the Goddess of Love. "I think in Grand Slams events it should be equal pay," Williams, one of the rising teenage stars in the hugely popular women's game, made her plea after breezing through her first-round match at a rain-sodden Wimbledon with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Canadian Jana Nejedly. "I think the ladies should do something about it instead of just playing and just feeling comfortable and relaxed with it and just accepting it for years to come." Women get the same prize money as the men in the U.S. Open but are still battling for equality in France, Britain and Australia. Women's tennis is thriving. The stars -- ranging from glamorous Russian Anna Kournikova to the teenage Williams sisters -- attract 20 percent more television viewers, surveys have shown. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) argues that the top women offer greater entertainment, more exciting matches and larger-than-life personalities. "With all the tradition, maybe women are seen as second-class citizens," a WTA spokesman said. "There are a lot of personalities on the ladies' tour at this moment in time," said the 18-year-old Venus, sporting the blue and white beads in her braided hair that have become a Williams family trademark. Asked about men players who made derogatory remarks about their female counterparts, Venus shrugged off any attacks: "I think that it is in the past and hopefully not in the future."
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