The U.S. Open started this week, the day after the Olympics ended. And I found out that's why Andy Roddick (former #1) skipped being on our Olympic team... he wanted to be rested for the Open. I suppose the wish for a medal was outweighed by prize money, since even the worst Open player gets $3000 for qualifying. But check this:U.S. Open Prize Money (2007)Wow, so you & a partner can play your hearts out and win the Mixed Doubles title, (ta-da!) and still each make le$$ than someone who came in 15th in Singles play? (U.S. Open stats)
Singles (Men's or Women's brackets)
Winner gets $1,400,000, 2nd place gets $700,000
Doubles (Men's, or Women's brackets)
Winners each get $200,000 , 2nd place $100,000 each.
Mixed Doubles (Teams of 1 male/1 female)
Winners each get $75,000, 2nd place, $35,000 each
Now we know why there are so few 'mixed' partnerships!
But how did those prizes get so uneven, anyway? Do viewers (or advertisers?) really not want to watch 'mixed' teams?
Geez that is quite a diff - Amity
ReplyDeleteApparently Andy was right. I just caught the end of the women's second round and saw the evidence:
ReplyDeleteThe women's top seed (who did go to the Olympics) was just knocked out by Coin, a woman who was ranked the # 188 seed.
That's only happened about twice in the last 30 years...