The first week of Wimbledon has been filled with rain delays and cancelled matches, so on Thursday, the tournament organizers at the All England Club had a plethora of tennis stars to schedule on a limited number of courts.
However, a controversy brewed when they decided to schedule five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams on Court No. 18, the sixth-largest court at the tournament, which has an official capacity of 782. The 36-year-old, who is the No. 8 seed at these Championships, hadn’t been scheduled on a court this small at Wimbledon (and possibly anywhere) since 1999.
“I wasn’t unhappy to play on Court 18,” Williams told reporters after her 7–5, 4–6, 6–3 victory over Maria Sakkari from Greece. “I just want equality for men’s and women’s matches. That’s what I’m unhappy about. I have no problem where I play. I’ll play on the practice courts if I need to. I have no problem with that.”
I tend not to understand court placement outrage, but Venus on court 18 when she's the 8th seed is shocking.
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) June 29, 2016
It’s no surprise that the elder Williams Sister is speaking up about this issue. After all, Williams, led the charge for equal pay at Wimbledon back in 2007. And earlier this year, after sexist comments by Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore reignited the debate over equal pay in tennis, Williams reinforced her desire to continue to fight for equality.
“I thought we were a little bit further along,” Williams said in April. “It’s a wake-up call for me, to not sit still and to do what I can for women — not just in tennis, but around the world.”
This is far from the first time that Wimbledon has been accused of sexist scheduling practices. In fact, the topic is almost as synonymous with the Championships as the all-white dress code and Pimm’s.
Last year, ESPN’s FiveThirtyEight calculated that women received only 38 percent of the court assignments on Wimbledon’s largest two courts, Centre Court and Court No. 1. In 2009. Wimbledon admitted that the attractiveness of female players was taken into consideration when making the schedule.
Overflow crowd for five-time #Wimbledon champ Venus Williams on Court 18. pic.twitter.com/jpcZ5e0wD6
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) June 30, 2016
“It’s not the ideal schedule for the women,” Williams said. “We’d like to see equal amount of matches. We don’t want more, just the same amount, that’s all.”
On Thursday, there was one women’s match played on Centre Court and Court No. 1, compared to two men’s matches on each. The third-biggest court, Court No. 2, had two men’s and two women’s matches.
Andy Murray was the only player of either gender scheduled on the top three courts on Thursday that had a Wimbledon title, and the only male Grand Slam champion in play on the day.
“I’m sure that the WTA supervisors have done their best to try to make the schedule equal. But also the All England Club has to have a culture where they want to have equality, as well,” Williams said. “They need to want to pursue that. I would love to see where we don’t have to talk about this any more in the press conference.”