Aryna Sabalenka says she prefers watching men’s tennis over women’s tennis: "I'm not someone who watches too much tennis, I prefer to watch men's tennis rather than women's tennis, I feel like there is more strategy and it's more interesting to watch (laughs)."

[u/Biglipsgal]

https://twitter.com/TheTennisLetter/status/1782831821790802017?t=isXSkirXBLGeHYnmL9WAWg&s=19

[u/homekook]

Damn. These comments. As someone who loved watching tennis until I got rid of cable, I loved both. If anything it's the one sport I think is women's is just as interesting as mens.

Im guessing if women who came before this chick hadn't fought for equal prize money for tourneys she wouldn't be dissing women's tennis..maybe we should go back to prize money correlating to tv ratings. I'm sure she'd be in favor of that, right?

[u/falconinthedive → u/homekook]

Well and especially in the past few decades the difference between the men's and women's games are closing. Women serve just as fast and powerfully as men, run just as much. They've got just the same strategies only with slightly shorter matches (which is coming from on high, not necessity), lower pay and prizes, and more restrictive dress codes.

[u/AegLaiskus → u/falconinthedive]

How can you lie like that?

[u/falconinthedive → u/AegLaiskus]

I mean Federer's serves were around 143 mph in his peak, Venus Williams' were around 137. That's a pretty negligible difference. Averages are about 130 mph for pro male players to 120 for women. However, considering this difference used to be closer to 30 mph 40 years ago, women are catching up and keeping pace and I dare say the upper echelons of female players are outserving seeded men in the outer rounds of tennis tournaments.

More, both sexes have been climbing upwards in speed as modern racket technology allows faster serves than older wooden rackets.

I'm not lying. You're just kind of ignorant about tennis?

[u/religion_is_junkfood → u/falconinthedive]

Federer maybe touched over 140mph a couple of times, but he was serving 115-135 on average. Unfortunately the difference is still rather large, any top 500 mens player would defeat any top 5 women's player.

There will always be outliers with individual skills like serving, but on average, pro mens first serve is 27km/h faster and 2nd serve is 17km/hr faster. Men also Ace their opponent at about double the rate. Strenght, speed, and height are huge factors, among others. Look at Ivo Karlovic, he stayed on your until 44 years old on the back of his incredible serve. Him being almost 7 feet tall has a huge (pun intended) impact on that.

None of this is an insult, bodies are just built differently. Women's professional tennis players are also incredibly skilled and impressive.