Wimbledon Goes Keith Hernandez. Kinda.

Apparently, those Englishmen aren’t down with equal rights.

At a press conference today, Wimbledon announced that the men’s winner would receive 655,000 pounds while the women’s winner would receive 625,000. In US currency, that mean’s the women’s champion would receive roughly $50,000 less than Roger Federer.

Under most circumstances, I’d make the “women really need that extra cash so they can buy a few handbags to match their new Tiffany’s earrings” joke but in this case, I legitimately believe that they should collect equivalent prize money.

The television ratings are just as good, although that’s probably because of Maria Sharapova’s figure as opposed to her ability. But still, I have to assume they bring in just as much money as the men’s game.

More importantly, the field in women’s tennis is much deeper, making for more competitive tournaments. Now I watch tennis about as much as I watch paintball, but I can still say I’ve at least heard of most of the top ranked women’s players in the world where as I can name very few of the best men.

And be real. If Federer is in a tournament, the only chance he has of losing is if he’s up against Rafael Nadal. Other than that, he’s a lock to win every time. In the women’s game, you have Mauresmo, Clijsters, Sharapova, Henin-Hardenne and a handful of others that all have the potential to win.

Considering that the other Grand Slam tournaments all give out equal money, this was a bad call by Wimbledon.