Tiriac wants to see long legs, not equal pay, in Madrid

The tournament director told the Times that on court, men and women are "not equal." (AP Photo)

Not again. Another tournament director has added his two cents to the equal pay debate, and once again, it's not pretty. This time around it's Madrid Open tournament director and billionaire business mogul Ion Tiriac.

“I like, very much more, women than men,” Tiriac told *The* *New York Times*. “All my life, I’ve done that. The longer the legs theirs are, the more beautiful I think they are. Even in tennis, they’re gracious and so on. But I don’t see the equal prize money being the status. Maybe they deserve more? Pay more the women if they deserve.

“But I think we have to go and calculate how much money are the men putting on the table, and how much the women, with TV rights. Because otherwise we have to compensate, and compensate, and compensate, and you cannot compensate forever. For that reason, it’s a beautiful sport, but I don’t think the women can complain that they don’t earn enough money.”

“Saying that they’re equal — they’re not equal,” Tiriac added. “I mean, once again, I prefer a woman on the court, they are beautiful on the court. Even [Roger] Federer, who is very elegant, I prefer an elegant woman, not Mr. Federer. But they are not bringing to the table the same thing.”

Ironically, Madrid is one of three non-Grand Slam events that pays the men and women equally, but Tiriac said that's something he can't maintain forever, especially if the ATP demands more prize money.

Tiriac has been the longtime owner of the Madrid Open, which just celebrated its 15th anniversary. The Romanian won the French Open doubles title in 1970 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.

His comments come on the heels of another tournament owner—now former tournament owner—putting his foot in his mouth. In March, Raymond Moore, the Indian Wells tournament director and owner, said, “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport."

He also added that the female players “ride on the coattails” of the men. Moore resigned less than two days after his comments were met with backlash from officials, players and fans.

In the *Times* article, Tiriac actually mentioned Moore.

“Ray Moore made mostly a joke out of it, the way that he put it,” Tiriac said. “I do something different: I put it in numbers. If the men give me $40 from television, and the women give me $7, it’s not the same. Finished.”

To give the 76-year-old some credit, he did agree that women should be paid equally from the semifinals onward.

Playing in Rome this week, the women are receiving only 56 percent of the men’s total prize money. Both Madrid champions, Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep, took home $1,038,290 last week. In Rome, the men's champion will receive $815,840 while the women's champion will get $491,450.