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Agassi questions use of models as ball-girls
A senior Spanish government official on Tuesday asked the organizers of the Madrid Masters tennis tournament to stop using models as ball-girls, saying it was sexist.
The models needed two weeks of training for their tasks of picking up stray balls and handing towels to players. They will work most of the televised matches at the week-long tournament. Secretary for Equality, Soledad Murillo, has sent a protest letter to the tournament director, a major sponsor and the mayor of Madrid in which she says the spirit of the tournament is being undermined. "Soledad Murillo ... considers that this move contributes to building a clearly discriminatory vision of women, as simple objects of decoration and entertainment," the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry, where Murillo works, said in a statement. "Traditionally this work is done by the male and female students of tennis academies, which is an example of equal treatment ... that does not distort the real essence of sporting competition."
Agassi successfully kept his eye on the ball - and not the models' legs - as he won through Tuesday in a match where young, lithe catwalk queens served as ball girls at the US$2.4 million Madrid Masters. The promotion gimmick, which has brought the tournament onto the world's non-sporting radar screens in a big way, was not a distraction to second seed Agassi as he triumphed 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in a second round battle with Max Mirnyi of Belarus. The girls, all professional models in their late teens and early 20s, did the job at the Rockodromo for the second night in succession at a showcase match. But the 34-year-old Agassi may have had an unfair advantage, married as he is to Steffi Graf, whose long legs helped to propel her to dominance in the women's game. Agassi still had to measure his words when describing his reaction to the night. "It was difficult, to say the least, to concentrate on the ball," joked the American veteran. "But I suppose I had an advantage, I'm used to playing with my wife." The American idol, 2002 tournament winner, was thereafter at a loss to go on in detail, but did produce his own form of a fashion tip. "The (long, slit) skirts look like they're a little difficult to run in - I think they need to be shorter maybe," offered Agassi. As he switched out of showman mode, Agassi said that the jury is still out on the move to employ models. "I need some time to let it absorb. It's important for our sport to understand its product clearly... but I'm not quite convinced it's part of our product." The arrival of the models, who wear skirts and tight tops emblazoned with the name of a sponsor, had already stirred up controversy over whether they were trivializing the game - and might distract players. "I think it is important for our sport to understand its product clearly, and I'm not quite convinced this is part of our product," Agassi told reporters after a match in which the umpire had to remind a confused ball-girl to return to the side of the net. "It was difficult, to say the least, to concentrate on the ball, but I suppose I had an advantage - I'm used to playing with my wife (Steffi Graf)," he added. In her letter, Murillo said she regretted that the sexist use of images of women was becoming more widespread. Many Spanish women still consider their society is macho. "(Murillo) calls for this treatment, which has become customary in fashion and publicity, not to be transferred to the sporting arena," the statement said. Tournament organizers were not immediately available to comment. |
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