perhaps that's true.

If it is, it is because sex appeal helps pay for Wimbledon.

Advertisers and media rights pay for tennis. Advertisers and the media want a return on their investment. Sex appeal helps sell things like it or not. Therefor sex appeal has a bearing on who gets center court.

That is part of the price you pay to be able to generate the huge amount of money that professional tennis generates.

That doesn't make this any less sad or insulting to real the real athletes.

Sports should not be about beauty, they should be about pure talent and skill.

I'm sure it would be great if someone told Yao he couldn't play on that televised game because he wasn't sexy enough.

Interesting that you think it totally OK, 2many. You'd never see this done in a men's sporting event.

Didn't say it was or wasn't "ok". Just stating that it is a fact.

Basketball is a team sport so one individual really isn't that important.

Comparing male tennis to female tennis would be a better example. Your point would hold up with that analogy to some degree.

Still even though you have a valid point, that is how it is. It won't change until the public changes. Right now, sex appeal helps sell tennis spots as well as other sports. There is that one asian golfer woman who is quite attractive who often gets into tournaments that she wouldn't qualify for by just her standings.

Of course, sex appeal also has a bearing on so many other careers. Right or wrong doesn't really come into play. It simply is how it is. It's been like that for the last 10,000 years or so.


You'll notice that they play up the attractiveness of male tennis stars as well. They really really promoted Agassi as one example. There have been a large number of others.

Things can be a way for a long long time and still be wrong. Like slavery. Existed a long long time, but now we see it as wrong.

And please clarify that by "sex appeal," you are really saying "the sex appeal of women to men." Because there aren't incidents like this with men, or if they are, it is one man... not a habit of the better looking one getting a better slot than a better playing one.

I'll have to take your word on Agassi; I don't follow tennis and probably couldn't pick him out of a lineup.
...The women? I could. Why? Their skill? Not so much. The publicity of their sex appeal to men. Sharapova comes to mind.

This guy


(image didn't work, I edited in a link. hope you don't mind - dep)

Sweet. We are another step closer to topless tennis.

Appearance means everything in this society. It's sad to see that sports are going to the dark side. Talent not beauty makes an athlete.

:-) I dunno, I kind of got a thing for Serena Williams...

The problem with the Agassi argument is that he has enormous talent to back up his good looks. Had he been ugly as Hell, he would have still been playing televised matches, because the male players aren't held to these ridiculous standards.

The whole situation is even worse when you look at it like this: A lot of people consider the Williams sisters to be very attractive, and they are (that picture in the article isn't too flattering). So why is Serena Williams, the #2 ranked tennis player, not getting to play all her matches on center court? It would seem that when the All England Club says "good looks" they really mean thin, young, and white.