With Carlos Alcaraz Crowned Champion, Madrid Open Faces Criticism For Ball Girls’ Outfits and Cakes
At the Madrid Open last week, Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka respectively won the men’s and women’s titles. Some people appear to have been more concerned with the events that occurred during the competition than with their victories.
During the Open, a female-only staff of ball girls worked the men’s matches, and some people didn’t like their clothing. Tennis skirts, a crop top collared shirt, and hats were the attire of the ball girls. The ball staff decided to change their attire in response to criticism.
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The Spanish Association for Women in Professional Sport encouraged organizers to alter the dress code guideline, according to Pilar Calvino, a spokesman for the organization. Calvino even went so far as to call the attire worn by the ball girls a kind of “sexist violence.”
“It’s a way of feminizing girls with respect to boys who don’t dress in the same way,” Calvino said. “Ultimately, it’s a form of sexist violence that is so widespread that people don’t even notice it.”
There was more than one controversy in Madrid last week, not just over the clothing worn by ladies who weren’t even participating in the competition.
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Alcaraz, a Spaniard whose birthday was two days before the final and who won the men’s final, was given a two-tier cake after the event. After her victory, Sabalenka, a native of Belarus, received a significantly smaller cake, which World No. 16 Victoria Azarenka noted on social media.
Finally, Azarenka and her doubles partner Beatriz Haddad Maia triumphed over Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the championship match; however, unlike other tournaments, the winners were not permitted to dress the crowd.
Men’s singles doubles, and women’s singles finalists were given the chance to address the crowd, according to USA Today.
The women’s doubles champions not being permitted to address the crowd is really strange, even though you could argue that the attire of the ball girls and the size of a cake aren’t really problems.
Gauff thanked the Madrid fans and clarified the issue on Twitter.
Wasn’t given the chance to speak after the final today:( But thank you to the fans for supporting us and women’s tennis this week! Thanks @JLPegula for always keeping it fun on the court and hitting unreal clutch shots hahahaha Lastly, big congratulations Vika and Bia 🎉💗
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) May 7, 2023
“I don’t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision,” Pegula said Tuesday, according to Tennis Majors. “To be honest, it kind of spoke for itself. We were upset when it happened, especially being told during the trophy ceremony we weren’t going to be allowed to speak. We were kind of like, Well, I guess this just kind of proves a point.”
With the French Open first round less than two weeks away, there is a lot going on in the tennis world.
