Wimbledon takes a step towards gender equality by removing “Miss and Mrs” from the women’s honor boards
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Ash Barty posing in front of the honors board after winning the 2021 Wimbledon
Wimbledon is the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. Every tennis player has a dream to compete in this premier grass-court tournament. Winning the Championships is a great achievement, and the winner gets their name inscribed on the honors board at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC).
The winners of the men’s singles were named with the first letter of their name and the last name. For instance, the current Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic on the honors board would be seen as ‘N. Djokovic’ while for the women it was a tradition to write ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’ before their first name. For instance, the current Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty is written as ‘Miss A. Barty’.
Now, the Wimbledon has decided to scrap the ‘Mrs’ and ‘Miss’ from the honors board so as to promote equality through the sport. Wimbledon has taken a small but significant step which has a huge impact on how the women players could be seen with respect to their surnames or marital status.
Wimbledon facing a grave situation after being stripped of ranking points.
For now, the tournament is surrounded by a lot of uncertainties due to losing the ranking points offered by the ATP and the WTA. The Tennis Associations took this step to counteract the decision taken by Wimbledon to impose a ban on the Russian and Belarusian players. Since Wimbledon has not budged from its stance, the tennis federation, with their equally strong will, it would be an interesting few months leading up to the tournament.
Many players are not really motivated to play when the prize money is expected to dip and no ranking points to grab, but Wimbledon is hoping that its prestige would be still enough to attract strong competitors.
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Prateek Sinha
(365 Articles Published)