"Women's tennis is two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour"
About this Quote
The subtext is gatekeeping. By framing women’s matches as too brief to matter, he’s smuggling in a hierarchy where legitimacy is measured in male-coded endurance: five-set epics, marathon broadcasts, the grind-as-virtue mythology tennis loves. That’s why “rubbish” is doing more work than “half an hour.” It’s not a critique of a specific player or era; it’s a blanket depreciation of a whole category, a way of policing what counts as “real” sport.
Context matters because tennis has long been a battleground for gendered valuation: pay parity arguments, TV scheduling, and the persistent habit of explaining women’s athleticism in apologetic terms. Cash’s quote sits inside that ecosystem, echoing a time when men’s opinions about women’s sport were treated as commentary rather than bias. Its real intent is less about match length than about who gets to define quality.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Later attribution: What Tennis Pros Don’T Teach (Wtpdt) (Manuel S. Cervantes, 2015) modern compilationISBN: 9781514420911 · ID: cKwECwAAQBAJ
Evidence:
... Women's Tennis is two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour ... Pat Cash 74 - These girls play Tennis first and foremost ; the fact that many of them are very glamorous is a major bonus for any promoter ... John Lindsey 75 ... |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Cash, Pat. (2026, February 21). Women's tennis is two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/womens-tennis-is-two-sets-of-rubbish-that-lasts-125678/
Chicago Style
Cash, Pat. "Women's tennis is two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour." FixQuotes. February 21, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/womens-tennis-is-two-sets-of-rubbish-that-lasts-125678/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Women's tennis is two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour." FixQuotes, 21 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/womens-tennis-is-two-sets-of-rubbish-that-lasts-125678/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2026.




