The Great Debate on Women’s Tennis

Let’s see, even though TV ratings are low, women should be paid more? Guess what, Julie Cart [Nov. 12]? Women tennis players stink. They’re slow, weak and small. Women’s tennis is a joke, a world of 60-m.p.h. serves and 30-m.p.h. forehands. The only people watching it are other women, perhaps angered even more by endless series of 6-0, 6-0, 30-minute, so-called “matches.”

HOWARD VEIT

Los Angeles

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Last week’s misogynistic diatribe by Shel Kaplan on women’s tennis players’ seeking equal pay must be answered. Mr. Kaplan actually seems to think professional athletes are paid on the basis of effort, so men who play best-of-five sets should earn more than women who play best-of-three. I’m sure the following will come as a great shock to him:

1. Professional athletes are paid no more for overtime games.

2. In track and field, male runners are usually paid much more for running 100 meters than female runners get for running 10,000 meters.

3. Professional boxers have earned more in 90 seconds than many other athletes will make in a career spanning years.

If women’s tennis is drawing as many fans as men’s, they should get equal money. Frankly, as a casual observer of the game, I find the current Graf/Seles/Sanchez-Vicario struggle for supremacy much more interesting than Sampras and Agassi in their umpteenth struggle.

STEVE MILLER

West Hills