It is reported that The All England Lawn Tennis Club will remodel its Wimbledon honour boards by removing titles before the names of its female athletes, ahead of the 2022 grand slam tournament.
According to The Times, honorifics including “MRS and Miss” in front of female winners will be removed next month, with the process of married women taking the initials and surnames of their husbands also to be changed.
The move comes as subject to their male counterparts, female champions have been named on the honours board with a “Miss” or “Mrs title since 1884.
For example, former world No. 1 Ash Barty is currently printed as “Miss A Barty”, while 20-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic reads “N Djokovic”.
Sports reporter, Paul Dennett, wrote in The Roar in 2021: “Surely Wimbledon must do away with such outdated and insulting styling.”
“It is time to rewrite the honours board.
“Remove all the anachronistic instances of ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs’ and get rid of the initials of female players’ husbands.
“‘Miss. R. Cawley’ should be ‘Evonne Goolagong-Cawley’ and ‘Miss. J.M. Lloyd’ should be ‘Chris Evert’,” said Dennett.
Currently, Australian tennis star Evonne Goolagong Cawley is printed as Miss. R. Cawley’, due to her husband’s last name being Roger.
The news follows Wimbledon’s decision in 2019 to stop announcing players with the title “Miss” and “Mrs.”
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic responded to this at the time: “I thought that tradition was very unique and very special; I thought it was nice.”
“It’s definitely not easy to alter or change any traditions here that have been present for many years.
“It’s quite surprising that they’ve done that,” said Djokovic.
