"I prefer to watch men's tennis than women's"

Aryna Sabalenka's faux pas, with thoughts from Victoria Azarenka

Aryna Sabalenka had just arrived at the Caja Mágica in Madrid, a couple of days out from her first match. Perched on a stool with a dozen recording devices piled on the table in front of her - not to mention a keen gaggle of journalists - it took only a few minutes for her to deliver a howler.

It started fairly innocuously, with a question that - admittedly - came from me. Does she watch her rivals when they play each other? In particular Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek, fellow members of the so-called WTA ‘Big Three’.

“Not really,” Sabalenka began. “I mean, I feel like I kind of have dropped my level on the ‘Big Three’, now it’s more like a ‘Big Two’ in the last month. However I’m happy to be in this ‘three’ and hopefully I can keep it up. I didn’t watch their match [in Stuttgart]. I felt like I played enough against them, I saw enough and if I’m going to face them I’m sure my coach will show me some of their matches so I’ll see what they’re doing and how things are going.” 

So far, so good. But then came the clincher: “I’m not a big fan to watch tennis a lot. Probably I prefer to watch men’s tennis than women’s tennis. I feel like there is more logic and more interesting to watch.” 

Aryna Sabalenka addresses the media

Sabalenka concluded by laughing and then waited expectantly for another question. The press conference swiftly moved on, but the raised eyebrows from a couple of the journalists suggested some may fail to see the funny side. 

When attending a press conference, news journalists will often listen out for “the line”. It’s the moment or comment which is deemed the most obviously newsworthy. Sometimes it can be hard to immediately identify (either if the subject said too many interesting things or if they said very little of note at all). Other times, reporters will have different audiences to cater to, so they won’t all be interested in the same questions or answers.

But as soon as the words left Sabalenka’s mouth, there was no mistaking “the line”.

Unsurprisingly, the world No 2 appearing to make disparaging comments about women’s tennis did not go unnoticed. It got picked up by a few websites and subsequently sent some corners of ‘Tennis Twitter’ (X) into a mild frenzy.

A couple of days later, Sabalenka clarified.

“I didn’t want to damage women’s tennis,” she told reporters. “We’re doing our best, there are lots of great matches, but I don’t like to watch it just because I play against all of them and want to kind of change the picture. I watch loads of women’s tennis before going to the match, I watch my opponents. It’s not like I don’t like it or I tried to offend what I do. I just was trying to say that because I’m playing there and it’s too much for me, I try to watch men’s tennis because for me it’s more fun than watching my probably future opponents in the tournament.”

This was a case of WTA overload, rather than a complete disinterest in women’s tennis. But the whole episode got me thinking about the responsibility female athletes often have to shoulder, to represent and lift their sport rather than just play it.

To be fair to Sabalenka, her original comments definitely looked worse on paper than when she first delivered them. She said it lightly and probably would have framed her thoughts more carefully on reflection.  

But she is also a two-time major champion, a top two player and one of the most recognisable figures in women’s tennis. She has earned $22.8million in prize money during her still relatively short career and has 1.7million Instagram followers. Through her great achievements, tennis has given her a huge platform and it means her words matter.

Former world No 3 Pam Shriver has spoken about a similar issue before. When she was president of the WTA in the 1990s and pushing for equal prize money, she had to pull up Steffi Graf - then the most dominant player in tennis - for publicly suggesting she wasn’t in favour of equal prize money.

“I don’t care what you think, but please don’t say it!” Shriver is said to have implored Graf.

I remember former England captain Steph Houghton getting herself in a similar sticky situation back in 2019, when she said of women’s football: “If it's on the telly, I won't break my neck to go and watch.” As one of the sport’s biggest figures at the time, Houghton was widely panned for letting that one slip.

I say now what I said then (and channel my inner Shriver): no one is telling Sabalenka she has to like it, but she should be more tactful about the way she talks about her tennis watching habits. It is simply good business sense.

There is a certain, relevant context to this too. Sabalenka was speaking in Madrid, where women’s tennis has had some, ahem, issues of late. Last season the organisers sparked controversy when Sabalenka was given a noticeably smaller birthday cake than home-favourite Carlos Alcaraz. Former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka suggested that the cake represented the different ways women and men are treated at the tournament. Azarenka and her fellow women’s doubles finalists were subsequently blocked from giving winners’ speeches later that week, prompting enough backlash to force an apology from the tournament. 

Since then, the organisers in Madrid have made moves to improve things this year, including by employing former world No 5 Daniela Hantuchova as a player relations liaison. But Ons Jabeur still claimed in the past week that women are treated differently than men at the event even now.

To add to that, there is a wider context spanning beyond Madrid. Sabalenka was one of a number of signatories on a letter sent to the WTA last year, pushing for better conditions for women on tour, including better pay and expanded childcare provisions. That was a worthy stand to take, but you’ve got to then align your public messaging to promote that same ecosystem if you want to reap the benefits.

While in Madrid, I asked Azarenka - who is a compatriot of Sabalenka’s and another two-time Australian Open champion - what she thought about the comments and what role she thinks WTA players have in lifting the sport up.

“I’m not sure why Aryna said that, I hope it wasn’t taken out of context, but I don’t think that is helpful,” Azarenka said. “What you don’t realise is you’re not helping yourself either. I think she will probably look back and hopefully at least adjust the things she says [which Sabalenka then did]. You can have any opinion you want but we as a whole group… There’s so many women working really hard - not just in tennis, in other sports as well - and we keep pushing the progress and needle forwards. It is a collective effort.

“I do believe it is absolutely an effort of all players to show up, to do interviews, to do media, to promote our sport, because it’s a trickle effect. The more you get bigger, the sport gets bigger. So, not all the time, but taking yourself out as an individual and thinking collectively is going to benefit you individually.”

She added: “That mentality is something that we also need to educate our young players. I feel like I got it quite early in my career, but it was a step, I had to work out how to speak to the media and understand how the progress happened. I don’t want to fault her for what she said, but I hope she will take into consideration that it is affecting everybody.”

Sabalenka’s off-hand comments about women’s tennis were innocent enough if they existed in a vacuum. But they don’t. When fellow players still feel unfairly treated in Madrid, and there are examples of structural inequality on tour on a regular basis, there are already enough factors working against women’s tennis. Whether purposely or not, Sabalenka’s clumsy take could act as yet another barrier.

It would be great if female athletes could easily say they don’t watch or take much interest in their own sport. Men do it, just look at Arsenal’s Ben White or NBA star Nikola Jokic, who have both expressed similar disinterest in following the hype around their sport. Their take may be seen as strange, but they won’t be accused of alienating fans or risking damage to their sport.

That honesty is a luxury afforded to men’s sport and male athletes who have not had to fight for recognition. Unfortunately, women’s sport is not there yet - even tennis, which is among the more established and advanced when it comes to revenue, player prize money and equality.

As long as there remains inequality when it comes to sponsorship deals, broadcast rights and attendances, prominent female athletes will still need to speak for that “collective” Azarenka describes, in order to keep pushing towards progress.

Whether Sabalenka wants to be a spokesperson for women’s tennis or not is neither here nor there. That is what she is. This past week was a reminder of that.

On a stroll around Madrid’s Parque de El Retiro this past week

Recommendations

I was delighted to be a guest on the Tennis Weekly podcast this week. We chatted about the Madrid Open, thoughts on the Saudi expansion into tennis and how I take my tea. You can listen here. 

If you’ve been following Rafa Nadal’s return to the court, you may have seen photographer Ella Ling’s emotive shots of his family watching on. She’s one of the best photographers in the biz - she took that now-iconic image of Nadal and Roger Federer holding hands and balling their eyes out at the latter’s retirement match in 2022. Follow her work on Instagram here.

Lastly (and I realise I’m fairly late on this hype) but I will be watching Challengers this week. Stay tuned for my (not so) hot take next week.

Thanks for reading, until next time!

Molly x