Wimbledon Centre Court Prefers Male Players: Analysis

The Wimbledon tennis championships are beginning on Monday (July 3). While both men and women's champions will earn an equal at £2.2 million at the end of the tournament, the question is whether both genders get equal treatment. And according to an analysis, the treatment is far from equal.

A look at the scheduled matches on the Centre and No. 1 courts during the last two championships shows a gender-biased coverage.  It is noticed that men are favoured over women players.

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According to tennis fan Mark Leyland, the All England Club is employed distinctively for two men’s matches and one women’s match on each of the two courts. There have been complaints, but the condition remains the same. “None of the other grand slam tournaments do this,” Mark said, while adding that the US and French championships’ top court schedules are very gender equal, The Guardian reported.

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The novelist and campaigner has researched and surveyed that during the 2015 championships, 76% of air time was dedicated to the men’s game, and one day, it crossed 93%.

Similarly, Mark Leyland’s findings state:

In 2015, BBC featured 66% of matches played by men

In 2016, 58% featured men

In 2015, every match scheduled on the two show courts in week one, featured top five men’s seeds

Wherein, only the top two women – Serena Williams and Petra Kvitova – had been able to capture the attention and were scheduled matches on the show courts.

While all of the top 13 men’s seeds appeared on the show courts, the top five women appeared on them at least once, but the rest of the top 13 were directed in other courts.

Leyland said, “Tennis is one of the few sports where women get equal prize money and should, ideally, get equal prominence. For Wimbledon, still the biggest tournament in the world, to neglect the women’s tournament -- whether it be the broadcaster or the organisers -- is to go against that.”

In reply, the Wimbledon spokesperson said that the scheduling and court allocation was a “complex operation and there will inevitably be variations from year to year, depending on the way the draw falls”.

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The analysis also examines that even while distributing the timing for practice on the court, women players stand a far less chance. It is high time that the deep-rooted gender inequality, is eradicated. After all, sport is a league of ability, not gender!

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Feature Image Credit: NDTV sports

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