the times | Friday May 27 2022 15
News
Wimbledon is replacing its honours
boards before next month’s champion-
ships to remove the titles “Miss” and
“Mrs” before the names of female
winners to match the men’s boards.
Traditionally, All England Lawn
Tennis Club has given women the titles
but not men. Three years ago it dropped
the use of the honorifics when umpires
were announcing the scores at the end
of a game.
Now Wimbledon is going a step fur-
ther towards equality and is changing
the honours boards that are displayed
around the club, the most visible one
being in the clubhouse.
The men’s boards have always shown
just the initial and surname — last
year’s winner, Novak Djokovic, is “N
Djokovic” — but from the very start
of the tournament, the women had
a title too. Last year’s winner, Ash-
leigh Barty from Austra-
lia, was on the board as
Miss A Barty, and
Maud Watson, the
first winner in
1884, was Miss M
Watson.
The All England
Club is also ending the
practice of giving married
women who won titles theNo more ‘Miss’ and
‘Mrs’ at Wimbledon
Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter initials and surname of their husbands.
Chris Evert’s previous entry on the
honours boards for her 1976 singles title
was Miss C M Evert, but after her
marriage to John Lloyd her 1981 title
was recorded as Mrs J M Lloyd and re-
mained so even after they divorced in- The new board will have C Evert
Lloyd for the 1981 entry — the last year
that a married woman won the singles.
Billie Jean King’s wins were on the
honours board as Mrs L W King to re-
flect her marriage to Larry King. Now
her victories will be recorded as B J
King, while Evonne Goolagong — re-
corded as Mrs R Cawley for her 1980
victory — will be E Goolagong Cawley.
Wimbledon insiders said the use of
titles had become an anachronism.
Djokovic, from Serbia, was one of
those who expressed surprise in 2019
when Wimbledon umpires stopped
using titles when referring to female
players. “I thought that tradition was
very unique and very special. I
thought it was nice,” he said
then. “It’s definitely not easy
to alter or change any trad-
itions here that have been
present for many years. It’s
quite surprising that they’ve
done that.”
Wimbledon will continue to
refer to the gentlemen’s singles
and the ladies’ singles, however.
The All England Club is ada-
mant that they will not become
the men’s and the women’s.
dddddddddddddddddAshleigh Barty will no
longer be Miss A BartyTMS
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