Dubai tournament director Salah Tahlak drew the ire of many fans when his comments about women’s tennis were printed in a Febuary 22 article in the Khaleej Times. In the piece, written by Rituraj Borkakoty, Tahlak expressed his frustration with the large amount of top-talent withdrawals at this year’s event, and said that ticket sales dropped drastically in Dubai for last week's WTA tournament.
But it was his comments about women’s tennis that sparked some outrage on social media. Based on what he said, it’s not surprising that the women’s tournament would have a smaller turnout from the WTA’s top stars. Here’s Tahlak's quotes :
"Yes, it's the real tennis, much stronger than women's tennis. I am very happy that Stan Wawrinka will be playing here in Dubai after a long gap.
Anyway, the men's tennis has always been better than women's tennis. The quality of matches is so high in the men's game. But I have to be fair with the ladies because they produced some great matches here.
You know, the average duration of the ladies matches was one hour and 45 minutes. Earlier it used to be one hour. So that tells you that the ladies are getting better."
And Here are a few of the tweets in response to his words:
Could something be lost in transcription here? Or is Tahlak really of the mind that women’s tennis is not “real tennis?” And how will his comments be perceived by the WTA talent base? Will it make them even more likely to want to skip it in the future?