Djokovic

I’m as feminist as they come but an attack on a woman?! Come on.

Is he a dick? Yes.

Did he purposely target a woman? No.

He wasn’t even looking where the ball went and when he realised what had happened he immediately went to check she was ok.

So add Woodbridge to Navratilova, King, Henman and even McEnroe to the list of past champions saying the decision was right. However, it won't stop the self appointed experts on social media saying Djokovic was hard done by and a nasty woman ruined his chance of catching up with Nadal and Federer in terms of Grand Slam titles.

The fact that he hit a woman is not misogny in this case as I think we all agree he had no idea it would hit anyone, never mind a woman.

However, his deep sense of entitlement "what, just because someone is hurt you're going to destroy my career?" could either be a classic sense of male entitlement or the sense of entitlement and arrogance often seen by top sports people. Or most likely, a combination of the two.

His apology was also ridiculous - he apologised for her "stress"? Please. It's very clear that he really doesn't think that she was hurt and that it was all played up. I think that was despicable. It doesn't matter that she isn't on life support in a hospital - she WAS hurt and he DID hurt her and he should acknowledge that.

If people want to argue that prize money should be based on who sells more tickets, fine. But the men who want change should frame it in that way, so it's clear their views are not mere sexism and they'd also accept lower renumeration should they cease to be the greater draw.

Todd Woodbridge thinks the decision to disqualify him was correct and I agree. It wasn't an accident it was a fit of anger. It wasn't a soft shot either.

wwos.nine.com.au/videos/tennis/djokovic-incident-will-change-tennis-woodbridge/ckerocdfs000y0hpnmeowdapf

As mentioned upthread, 5 sets are only played in the Grand Slams. The rest of the time, women and men on the professional tennis circuit play best of 3.

The real money is in sponsorship, exhibitions and appearance fees. Here, Roger Federer out earns everyone because he is very popular and marketable. The top men earn more this way than the top women. Among the women, Sharapova earned much more than Serena Williams at one point because while Serena was winning the tournaments, Sharapova had much better sponsorship deals.

Lots of people are commenting that the decision is unfair because they are applying intentionality, as would be the case in football when a player gets a red card. Tennis experts say that's not how it works when a player hits a line judge or official. However the misogyny has become overt because, by chance, he hit a woman. His comments about women players have ramped up the debate between the different factions in a way that did not happen when Henman hit a lineswoman or if Federer or Nadal had done the same thing.

The female tennis players have said that they're willing to play 5 sets. The tournament organisers have said they can't accommodate this within a 2 week tournament. It's not women's fault that they don't have the opportunity to play 5 set matches.

Reverse the sexes
If women's finals tickets sold for up to 5x as much as men's finals, yet male finalists were paid the same as female, would that be ok?
Then to top it off, because female finalists played more sets than males , male finalists had time to play in mixed doubles matches earning even more than female finalists, even though the women brought in more revenue and worked longer.
That in essence is what Djokovic was complaining about.

If it happened to be a male line judge it wouldn't have changed the outcome. Hit the ball in anger and hurt somenone, straight out. Its consistent with others like Henman.

We are hardly in a position to assess whether a person's choking noises after being hit in the larynx are odd. There really isn't any way to say that without being ridiculous.

I think he should have been penalised, not because it hit a woman but because he the ball in a temper which resulted in a person being injured. I would not like to be hit in the throat by a tennis ball doing 40-mph, I'm pretty sure that would be quite a painful and frightening experience.

Social media is a horrific place for any woman in the news. It’s daily misogyny and harassment that doesn’t get the police knocking on anyone’s door like misgendering does. It’s an issue for the feminist forum for sure. The OP didn’t phrase it that way and then brought class into it.

Yeah and what’s with the dramatic choking comment cookerhood

She was hit in the throat by a tennis ball hit by Novak

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

It was very clearly an accident.

(And you can see in some of the video clips just how seriously she's struggling to breathe - as Mumsnut says, this sort of injury can be fatal.)

I'd just come on to say the same thing Mumsnut. It hit her squarely over the larynx. This can kill very quickly, due to swelling occluding the airway.

Yup she is being slated in SM.

That is the feminist issue

Yep and he didn’t go to presser just went home

To hope to grow as a human being 🤦‍♀️

Just to say, laryngeal trauma can kill because it compromiseS oxygen intake.

No way the medical
Attention was overkill.

Once again the feminist issue is the sexist criticism of the line judge.
Go on social media and read what has been written about her.
Poor woman got hit in the throat and got abuse for it.

Meanwhile Djokovic can't even face the media to apologise like a grown up.

He didn't even hit the ball in anger, he just hit it away to the back of the court and the line judge happened to be there. All the dramatic choking was a bit odd unless is caught her very unfortunately. I don't like the man & it's absolutely right that he was disqualified but I find it extremely hard to make it a feminist issue, or even one of anger.

So true openlygay

charles

My impression (as a non tennis fan) is that women weren’t allowed to play 5 sets

Which wasn’t fair with regards to the prize money

Watched the match. He didn’t aim at her

That doesn’t matter. The rules are clear. defaulted

He earlier on in the match smacked a ball very hard at the hoarding

Tennis players know to b careful when clearing balls as other players/ officials/spectators are not watching what another player is doing when they are clearing balls

She wasn’t watching the lines as the ball wasn’t in play at time

Women can play 5 sets !!

They do in league tennis in the past and they are just club players not elite athletes

Tbh 5 set matches can be omg just finish now which is why new rules are being brought in to speed it up