On March 29 1994, Tennis Australia announced that the finals of the women’s singles the following year would be played best-of-five sets. If history was simple, the next sentence would be something along the lines of how this was the beginning the era of women playing that format at all the majors. It would also include details on how this built the foundation for prize money equality and indicate that everyone lived happily ever after. History is never that simple. Good talk.
As I mentioned yesterday, I resorted to twitter to try to track down a print media source referencing this event at the time that it occurred since I was coming up with nothing on my own. None of the people I tagged in the tweet provided a response that was immediately useful, but I did receive a random pointer to the existence of an article from the Canberra Times from another twitter user.
As an administrative side note, I do have access to a searchable database of newspapers, but I have to physically visit my local library to use that resource. I have a job. I have to play tennis. I am captaining two league teams which are currently in season. Visiting my public library is a task that is more onerous to fit into my schedule than it sounds. Additionally, I was not told that actual research would be required in the writing of this blog. While I plan on getting to the library this weekend to perform some detailed searches, what I really needed in the interim to press forward on this topic was a free public internet accessible source.
The National Library of Australia has develop a portal to access all the library’s online services that is known as “Trove.” I need to take a moment to express my appreciation and gratitude that this resource exists. It is free internet accessible archive of all things Australia. Included in Trove, is an archive of the Canberra Times.
The day after Tennis Australia announced that the women’s finals would be played best-of-five, the Canberra times dutifully carried an article that reported that news. Best-of-five was the headliner, but it was actually one of several changes for the next year’s Australian Open slated for 1995 outlined by Tennis Australia president, Geoff Pollard, and tournament director Paul McNamee.
One of the primary motivations cited as a driver for the decision was public outcry that Steffi Graf had earned $460,000 for defeating Arantxa Sanchez 6-0, 6-2 in the Australian Open finals earlier in the year. A point of emphasis was that the match had taken less than 60 minutes to play. As I mentioned in “When Women Played Best of Five“, length of matches being mentioned in the proximity of prize money is a recurring theme. I am anticipating tugging on that thread some more in the immediate future.
Also included in the Canberra Times article is a quote from Geoff Pollard that he was confident that the WTA would support the change. That turned out to not be a good assumption. The WTA was reportedly informed of the change via a fax without any coordination or communication prior to the decision.
Tomorrow I will write about the WTA’s opposition to the announcement.
- Five-set final for women in Australia, The Canberra Times, March 30, 1994.
- About Trove, viewed March 5, 2020.
- Why Women Don’t Play Best-Of-Five Matches at Grand Slams, ThinkProgress, Lindsay Gibbs, May 27, 2016, page viewed 3/2/2020
