Wimbledon: Women’s tennis often in the shadow of the gentlemen: Wimbledon rules as he pleases

There is not a good trend towards equality in Wimbledon.

A comment by Jörg Allmeroth from Wimbledon

When the defending champion of the Open English Tennis Championships on Thursday evening had to bury her hopes for a new cup win with some misery, Spain’s star Garbine Muguruza’s defeat by no means took place on the Centre Court – the biggest and most famous stage of this sport in the world. In the last light of the fourth day of the competition, just in time for an imminent abortion, Muguruza was in second place against the overjoyed winner Alison van Uytwanck from Belgium.

It was an affront on several levels, and by no means an isolated case at the “Championships” in southwest London. Because there can be no talk of equal treatment for men and women in this tournament, which outshines all other tournaments. Long-term statistics have only just been published, according to which women’s games only account for just under 40 percent of the so-called show courts. In recent years, the organizers of the tournament have tried harder to find a better balance – even after massive complaints from the players’ union WTA. But there have always been relapses into a Wimbledon era in which women were sometimes treated like the fifth wheel of the Grand Slam car.

Wimbledon also represents a different, unpleasant trend. Although the Grand Slam tournaments are, so to speak, a possession of global tennis, universal performance fairs of the best of the best, the tournaments mercilessly place their local heroes on the top places. On the day Muguruza retired to second place, Johanna Konta of Britain and Kyle Edmund of Britain played on the Centre Court – certainly no attraction for the assembled international of the television stations. The problem has always been: Wimbledon simply rules as he pleases.