Wimbledon to remove 'Miss' and 'Mrs' prefixes from honors board, Billie Jean King praises decision
Wimbledon has reportedly decided to remove the 'Miss' and 'Mrs' prefixes from the honors board. According to The Telegraph, new boards will be installed before this year's tournament begins on 27 June.
Wimbledon to drop Mrs and Miss on women’s honours board independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/w…
As per tradition, the women's winners have always had their title mentioned before their names. For instance, last year, Women's Singles champion Ashleigh Barty's name was written as 'Miss Ashleigh Barty' while Men's Singles champion Novak Djokovic had his name written as 'N. Djokovic'.
Another custom that will change is giving married women the initials and surnames of their husbands. Chris Evert won the women's singles title in 1981 and her name was written on the board as 'Mrs. J. M. Lloyd' as she was married to John Lloyd at the time. However, her name will now be changed to 'C. Evert Lloyd'.
Former World No. 1 Billie Jean King praised the decision and said that she was glad to see the change being made.
"Terrific to see Wimbledon making this important change," King said.
Terrific to see #Wimbledon making this important change.
#EqualityForAll thetimes.co.uk/article/wimble…
Earlier, the grasscourt major had dropped the practice of umpires calling female players by their titles. Novak Djokovic called the tradition "unique and special" and said that he was surprised with it being changed.
"I don't know, to be honest, how I feel about it. I thought that tradition was very unique and very special. I thought it was nice," the Serb said.
Wimbledon will not have ranking points in 2022
There will be quite a few changes at this year's Wimbledon after the ATP and the WTA decided to strip the tournament of its ranking points. The tennis bodies made the decision after the All England Club banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at SW19 due to the war in Ukraine.
Several tennis players like Benoit Paire, Naomi Osaka and David Goffin, among others, have criticized the move. Reigning champion Novak Djokovic, however, backed the decision, saying that the tournament should know that "mistakes" have consequences.
"I think collectively I'm glad that players got together with ATP, the governing body of the men's tennis, and showed to the Grand Slam that, you know, when there is a mistake happening, and there was from the Wimbledon side, then we have to show that there is going to be some consequences," Djokovic said.