Wimbledon has decided to remove the titles ‘Miss and ‘Mrs’ in front of past female winners on the famous honours boards.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club’s winners boards – with the most prominent being in the clubhouse – have the honorifics in front of female winners, but not men.
From the start of the tournament in 1884, the female winner has had her title-first-name initial-surname on the board, with last year’s winner Ashleigh Barty reading ‘Miss A Barty.’
Yet the men’s winner, Novak Djokovic, was just N Djokovic and having dropped using ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ when umpires announced the names of female players during matches in 2019, the AELTC have modernised further by updating the honours boards so the women’s names also now go by first-name initial, then surname.
The decision, revealed by The Times, comes as Wimbledon deal with the backlash following their announcement to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in this year’s Championships.
The ATP, WTA and ITF responded by stating that no ranking points would be awarded for the Grand Slam event, rendering Wimbledon effectively an exhibition from a rankings point-of-view.
The report in The Times states that Wimbledon insiders have agreed to the honours board change ‘to move with the times and the use of titles had become an anachronism in an age of increasing equality.’
