LET’S zero in on the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows in New York, the city that doesn’t sleep.
How much again does a Grand Slam tennis champion win?
No less than $3.8 million, right? Male champion, female champion, it’s the same.
It used to be that a male champion received more than the female champion in each of the four Grand Slams.
That lasted for decades.
Give credit to Billie Jean King, who fiercely fought for equality in prize money for male and female Grand Slam champions.
And so, if I were a woman and became a Grand Slam champion, I’d donate a chunk of my prize money to the Billie Jean King Foundation. If she has none, Billie can name a beneficiary, a hospice maybe, or any organization devoted to charity.
Recognizing someone’s heroism is humanity’s act that is second to none.
Heroes and heroines. In every Grand Slam tennis, there are lots of them.
Ball boys, ball girls, you see them darting here and there at the U.S. Open, making things easy for our players to do their thing. When not chasing loose balls, they hand towels to players wishing to wipe their sweat, tears, away. Such meaningful menial job.
Linesmen, lineswomen, you see them, hunched and bent but still working diligently like hawks looking for faults and wide shots. And to think they are mostly seniors in the U.S. Open tugs at the heart. Aren’t they merely volunteers, too?
And how about those manning the locker rooms?
What I’m saying here is, these are all unsung heroes.
Without them, there’d be no Slams.
Without them, there’d be no champs like Serena Williams to speak of. With 23 Slams thus far to her name, that should give her approximately $20 million in earnings.
And so, if I were a Grand Slam champion, I’d give “something” to these heroes. Say, a thousand bucks each?
If there’d be 50 of them, that’d only amount to $50,000. What’s that compared to the $1 million or more that a Slam champ would take home? That might just be a drop in the bucket, but already a shot tantamount to the cause for humanity.
If I were a Grand Slam champion. Heroism takes the front seat. Anytime.