Wimbledon Takes a Unique Step to Modernize the Tournament Before 2022 Championship

The Wimbledon Championships is going through a revolutionary phase. Recently, the ‘Mecca of Tennis’ was in the headlines for its decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing at this year’s event.

Adding to it, Wimbledon made headlines once again. This time, for announcing a unique change to its ‘honour board’.

Wimbledon to make changes to its honor board

Wimbledon’s ‘Honour Board’ has a special place in the history of the sport. The Board has the names of all the champions of the tournament since its inception in 1877. However, with modernizations considered as key to stay relevant in the current era, Wimbledon decided to make a significant change. Yesterday, it was announced that Wimbledon will be making changes to the ‘Honour Board’ before next month’s tournament. The changed board will have the names of the female champions without titles such as ‘Ms.’ or ‘Mrs.’

In its close to 1.5 century long history, the names of the men’s and women’s champions have been written differently on the board. On the one hand, the names of men’s champions are written as their first initial, and their full surname, the names of women’s champions, have also been written in the same way but with a title to it. The announced change is expected to get the men’s and the women’s champions on the same page in terms of their name on the board.

Significant changes to the names of married women champions

Apart from this, another effect that the change will have would be in the names of married players. Currently, the names of married women’s champions are written as initials and surnames of their husband.

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For example, Chris Evert’s name for her 1974 and 1976 victory is engraved as Miss. C.M. Evert. On the contrary, her name for her 1981 is engraved as Mrs. J.M. Lloyd as she was married to John Llyod at that time. However, despite their divorce in 1987, her name for her 1981 victory continues to be the same. With the announced change, she will now be engraved as C.M. Evert for all her victories.

On a number of instances, Wimbledon has been criticized for addressing women and men players differently. It is widely seen as outdated by many. With steps like these, Wimbledon is undoubtedly on track to change its outdated image and evolve to the current times. The 2022 Wimbledon Championships will kick off from 27th June.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Essentially Sports