Rajeev Ram In his Own Words: On Equal Pay and Sexism

From LastWordOnTennis, by Jeff Crady.

Raymond Moore, tournament director of Indian Wells, set the tennis world ablaze in April with his comments about how the female players should be, “on their knees” with thanks for the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for bringing attention and popularity to their tour. The sexist comments resulted in media attention and his ultimate resignation as tourney director for the historic tournament. The story dominated tennis media outlets for weeks. Players from Serena Williams to Novak Djokovic were asked about the controversy. Twitter too lit up in debate about the many questions and nuances of equal pay for the WTA and ATP Tour players. Rajeev Ram got caught up in that Twitter firestorm while seeking to clarify comments that Novak Djokovic made to the media on Twitter when tweeting about pay discrepancy and fair market competition with various journalists and fans. Many deemed his views as sexist and bigotry. Ram’s desire to clarify a comment Djokovic made to the press that included a reference to women’s hormones, a comment that Ram stated Djokovic shouldn’t have said, unleashed the wrath of both fair-minded tennis fans and trolls alike. WTA Players, media, and fans alike critiqued and trolled his tweets about the matter for months. Even this past August after winning the silver medal in mixed doubles in Rio with Venus Williams, jokes about “shouldn’t Venus’ medal be 40% smaller” (in referencing to tv market shares and prize money discrepancies) abounded on social media. Ram, long a proponent of prize money being distributed better among the ATP players, had always been knows as a respectful serve and volleyer from Indiana–one to give back to the community he grew up in, give an interview, and sign an autograph for anyone who wanted–has had a career resurgence over the past 18 months that has seen him reach new highs in singles and doubles, and first Olympic success.

So is Ram a sexist “bro” holding outdated ideas on the role of women in sport, or is he something different, more complicated?

LastWordOnTennis interviewed Rajeev Ram recently to provide him a space to discuss his views on professional tennis and prize money, so that people can make up their own minds about what his views are without the distraction of 140 character limits, and the influence of outside sources.

Rajeev Ram in his own words.

Jeff Crady of LWOT: What, if any problems, do you have with the thesis, “Professional men’s and women’s tennis players should play for equal prize money on tour?”

Rajeev Ram: I have absolutely no problem with that statement. Both the ATP and WTA tours have equal opportunity and find sponsors and sell their product to fans to put prize money into tournaments and if that ends up being equal then that’s great.

Crady: How do you think your opinions stated on Twitter were misunderstood or misrepresented?

Ram: I think what was misrepresented and misunderstood was that somehow I was an advocate for women getting less money and men getting more money because of their gender. I do not feel that way at all. In fact, I feel the complete opposite in that gender should have nothing to do with compensation. Instead, compensation should be about market value from a business point of view.

Crady: Why do you or don’t you believe that a market-based view on tennis prize money is the right way to decide which players and which tours get paid more?

Ram : I completely believe that is true. After all, professional tennis is a business and a great one at that. Both tours rely on fans and sponsors to pay to see the product in order to make money. Therefore it is up to each tour to sell their product and develop a pay structure based on that in order to pay the players. When the thought process is such, it simply becomes about the numbers.

Crady: Do you feel that professional tennis is best represented when both tours are in combined events with combined media coverage?

Ram: I don’t think that having combined events necessarily makes or breaks an event. I feel like events can be great if they are separate like Queen’s Club on the men’s side or Charleston on the women’s side, or together like Indian wells is. I feel like both tours offer wonderful products and can succeed individually or together.

Crady: What do you think the most overlooked aspect or point of the equal pay argument is and why is it important to not overlook that point?

Ram: I think the most overlooked point is this whole conversation is that the ATP and WTA tours run as completely separate businesses that sell the product of professional tennis. In some cases, we happen to play at the same venue at the same time, but we do not share any staff that is employed by our respective tours. I feel like at times, people think that we function as one group because they see us playing at the same venue but that is not the case.

As the 2016 tennis season wanes, undoubtedly the consequences and conversation of Raymond Moore’s old school sexist comments will go down as one of the dominant story lines. It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for this dialogue in 2017 which will undoubtedly spark again when the WTA and ATP Tours roll into Indian Wells again in April.

Ram begins his Asian swing, after taking time off from his mixed doubles runner-up finish at the US Open with CoCo Vandaweigh, this week in Chengdu. He and doubles partner Raven Klaasen of South Africa are seeking to make the year-end tour finals for the first time and are the tournament’s #1 seeds.