Gilles Simon defiant in pay row

 
Chris Jones29 June 2012

Gilles Simon may have been knocked out of the singles but is still dominating many of the conversations at Wimbledon after standing by his view that women should not get as much prize money as the men.

The tenth seed lost in straight sets to Xavier Malisse and then insisted all the men’s players agree with him but that they are afraid of losing sponsorship deals if they go public.

Simon said: “My point was that I have the feeling that men’s tennis is actually more interesting than women’s tennis. The 128 players [at Wimbledon] think like me, that’s for sure. Just ask them.

“It’s not only my point of view, it’s the point of view of everybody in the locker room. Maybe they can’t say it; maybe they will lose, I don’t know, two million on the contracts if they say that.”

Wimbledon began offering equal prize-money in 2007 following a unanimous vote by the championship committee.

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