Coup Droit wrote:

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There was a big article in the New York Times, I think it was, about sexual discrimination in terms of the different sized draws for men and women and the effect that has on funding, with women needing to be about 80 places higher in the world rankings in order to break even.

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Was that recently? I saw a Christopher Clarey NYT piece about hopes for 2018, that obliquely referenced the general area, but nothing specific, and no other article in NYT or WaPo (the other leading US contender - SI?) that seemed to match.

There was the London Times piece featuring Annie K's input that was discussed previously that was immediately pertinent.

So glad that lots of others are annoyed by the anomaly of 128 men going for qualifying and 96 women. It just feels sexist and discriminatory - somehow that they can't be bothered to organise for the extra 32 players. I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I have seen the Aussie fans abroad, they seem to give so much more support to their men than their women, and somehow the fact that there are less women allowed to try to qualify kind of sums up the kind of discrimination I'd expect there, though I think I am right in saying that only the US Open has an equal number of women and men qualifying: 128. Going back to the Aussies, I remember watching a couple of Alicia Molik's matches a few years ago, and the same Aussies who were cheering the house down for their men, were so sarcastic and half hearted in their support for her - I remember when she was behind almost at match point, one of them shouting out sarcastically 'Go on Alicia, you can do it' and the others laughing, and I think they actually made it far harder for her to win than if they hadn't been there at all. I guess Australia is about the last place in the western world where I would expect to find equal rights and equal respect for women. As others have said, poor Laura and unlucky for the other 31 women who would otherwise have had the chance to qualify. 

It looks like qualifying has been moved indoors. Naomi is third up on indoor court 6, with the first match just about to go into a third set.

Apparently Naomi is currently warming up.