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You cannot be serious!

Before last week, had you heard of Sorana Cirstea? Or Gisela Dulko? How about Caroline Wozniacki or Maria Kirilenko?  Would you be surprised to hear that these women were considered the best players to be placed on Centre and Number One courts at Wimbledon? So were many avid followers of tennis.

Last week, former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich caused uproar when he suggested that the role of women tennis players is as much about ‘selling sex’ on court as it is about sport. Stich made his remarks in the context of a discussion about the unpleasant ‘grunting’ which is becoming more prevalent in the women’s game. He said: ‘Just play it back to the women. [Grunting] sounds disgusting, ugly, unsexy!’ Challenged that women are on court to win tennis matches rather than look sexy, Stich said ‘That’s what they sell,’ . The BBC commentator has since clarified his comments, saying ‘I promise you, I have never said women players are just in our sport to promote themselves as sex objects‘.

It seems that they don’t need to, as the All-England club are willing to do it for them. According to the Daily Mail(I know, I know!), ‘babes’ are getting to play on the top courts, with higher-ranked players, including the Williams sisters, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina (four of the top five seeds) have been sent to play on ‘outside courts’.

The All England Club have apparently admitted that physical attractiveness is taken into consideration, when the order of play is determined. Spokesman Johnny Perkins said: “Good looks are a factor“. He continued by saying that court selection is “a great big mixture of where the players are in the draw, who they’re playing, what their ranking is“, concluding “Box-office appeal has to be taken into consideration. It’s not a coincidence that those (on Centre Court) are attractive.”

At a time when British sportswomen are more than matching their male counterparts, it’s rather galling that the All-England seems to be suggesting that the ability of women to take centre stage on Centre Court is more a factor of their vital statistics than playing statistics.

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