Wimbledon Match Scheduling: Centre Court, No. 1 Court, Court 2
At every tournament, especially the Grand Slams, match scheduling is a topic of much discussion. Inevitably, there is some “constituent”, i.e. player, TV network, tennis fan, etc. who is not happy with each day’s program of matches. At Wimbledon this year, the
assignment of both Venus Williams and Serena Williams on No. 2 Court for one of their early round matches sparked many comments, as well as Maria Sharapova for her round of 16 match. This choice was a surprise to many people given how many Wimbledon titles Serena and Venus have collected over the years. At the same time, the top four men, i.e. Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray have played all their matches on either Centre Court or No. 1 Court.
The other complaint about the match scheduling at Wimbledon, at least from the women’s side, is that generally of the three matches scheduled daily on both Centre Court and No. 1 Court, two are men’s matches and only one is a women’s match. Why is that “rule” in place? Clearly, Wimbledon like every tournament is trying to place the most popular, highly-seeded players on the show courts, as well as, the most intriguing match-ups of the day. However, there is no way that this should always equate to two men’s and only one women’s match?! It took years for Wimbledon to offer equal prize money to the women and it seems that “gender equality” in match scheduling still lags behind.
The other complaint about the match scheduling at Wimbledon, at least from the women’s side, is that generally of the three matches scheduled daily on both Centre Court and No. 1 Court, two are men’s matches and only one is a women’s match. Why is that “rule” in place? Clearly, Wimbledon like every tournament is trying to place the most popular, highly-seeded players on the show courts, as well as, the most intriguing match-ups of the day. However, there is no way that this should always equate to two men’s and only one women’s match?! It took years for Wimbledon to offer equal prize money to the women and it seems that “gender equality” in match scheduling still lags behind.
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