Gender disparities in tennis media

In tennis, the US Open is the largest tournament, where the world’s top players compete for the 3-million-dollar prize. The 2023 US Open marked the 50th year since it became the first major tournament to offer equal prize money. Given the US Open’s global viewership, treating women’s tennis equally to men’s tennis is crucial, as focusing on men’s tennis could perpetuate the misconception that tennis is not a sport for women. This study investigates if the US Open tournament has eliminated historical gender disparities within its own programming. In order to do this, we investigated two areas: the topics commentators focused on when speaking about men’s matches compared to women’s, and the number of matches from the men’s or women’s tournaments that were shown live on ESPN1 and ESPN2 (TV channels offering comprehensive sports entertainment and analysis). Specifically, we tested two hypotheses: 1) A specified television network would broadcast more men’s matches than women’s matches, and 2) commentators would discuss more tennis related topics during men’s matches, as opposed to discussing personal topics more during women’s matches. Our results supported our first hypothesis but did not support our second hypothesis. Noticing and addressing discrepancies between the way each gender is treated is crucial in combatting bias in everyday conversations and ensuring equal opportunities for all athletes.