Women's Sports = BORING

[Delta]

I am afraid this has rendered women's tennis a second-class sport until sufficient new talent emerges or the existing talent decide to take the sport seriously.

Second-class sport until new talent emerges?! There IS new talent, but the people who are on top are staying on top, that's how it works. It's never easy defending a title once, twice, or six times with your sister. The one thing I love about the Williams sisters is that they are showing the entire world that a woman can consistently serve faster than men and remain dominant. To say they don't take the sport seriously is untrue. The Williams sisters had a magnificent career before they decided to pursue their other interests. They do that what they do seriously, whether that be following their dreams in fashion or tennis. Prior to being famous, Serena had a marked interest in that field, it wasn't as if her fame turned her into fashion.
Sharapova took a Rose a few years ago when both were exploring the fashion industry and they trained less. (Mauresmo took one after an earlier upset during a time when Venus or both were still recovering from injuries, right? Don't remember) What's wrong with it? Does the tennis world have some entitlement to keep them there and only there to be considered as dedicated and serious tennis players?

[crquack]

All I am saying is try that stuff on the men's side, see how far you will get.
In any case, anyone who watched today's final will surely say "QED".

[Insipiens]

...
Not that I don't empathise with your frustration. One reason why I personally think women's events are indeed more boring is that women are not encouraged to really go at it hammer and thongs, for socio-cultural reasons. To me, that's where the problem starts, and you have a point that treating women as valid competitors and supporting their efforts is a good starting point for getting better quality women's events. I just don't think Mr E is part of the problem - I think he's actually on our side, so to speak

My emphasis I am presuming you meant "tongs" although the alternative image could be the next stage in the WTA marketing campaign: who would you most like to see play tennis in a thong?

As to your point, I don't think that is true of tennis: the women seem to throw everything into it, although the top women (maybe because they are just younger than the top men) do seem to be more brittle mentally when it comes to fighting back from a poor position. Maybe they should play more five set matches so that they don't give up after losing one set. (compare Sharapova in her defeat with Federer in the final at Wimbeldon this year)

[finnfence]

A lingusitic point. Being called "that monster" in French probably is a sign of nervous respect than anything else. The German would have been "une brute," or "bourine," or any number of other, less polite terms.

The female fencers I watched a month ago at the French national épée championships did not seem burdened with the pressure to be nice.

Ok, I'll take your word for it on the linguistic front, though the comment was made with body language of extreme dislike - but that could be normal for the culture, too. I must have misinterpreted the comment, then.

Interesting what you're saying about no pressure to be nice at the ladies' national epee champs. Is there, do you think, pressure on the ladies to be feminine, whatever they do? (Maybe "nice" is not really a concept in French culture, the way it is for Amis.) Or do you think the ladies are not experiencing any conflicting signals, they're just being risk averse for the reason that someone else mentioned on this thread, namely being more analytical and taking the "easier"/"safer" way whenever possible? Or were they taking risks, and the relative lack of flash is just due to differences in physique vs men? Or *are* they actually just as flamboyant as the guys, over in France?