Wimbledon is "still serving up sex discrimination on its top two show courts," it has been claimed, according to Caroline Davies of the London GUARDIAN. An analysis of matches scheduled on Centre and No. 1 courts during the last two championships "demonstrated a gender bias overwhelmingly in favour of male players." Tennis fan Mark Leyland said that the All England Club employed a 4:2 formula -- two men's matches and one women's match on each of the two courts -- "despite complaints." He said, "None of the other grand slam tournaments do his." The novelist and campaigner has "already taken the BBC to task" over gender bias after recording the entirety of its coverage on BBC1, BBC2 and its red button service to prove that 76% of airtime during the '15 tournament went to the men's game. On one day it was 93%. Now, "he has the All England Club in his sights." Leyland analyzed the top two show courts’ scheduling during the first week of the '15 and '16 Wimbledon championships, and "found the 4:2 formula was adopted on 10 out of the 12 days." Not only that, but in '15, the top five men's seeds -- Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori -- plus Rafael Nadal, who was seeded 10th, "had every match scheduled on the two show courts in week one." By contrast, "only the top two women -- Serena Williams and Petra Kvitova -- had all their matches on the show courts" (GUARDIAN, 7/3).
TIGHT SECURITY: Davies also reported Wimbledon opened on Monday with the "tightest security in the tournament's 131-year-history." There were "record numbers of armed officers, undercover police and security guards among the 40,000-strong crowd." Protective barriers, similar to those installed on London's main bridges, "feature for the first time along the route to the All England Lawn Tennis Club." AELTC CEO Richard Lewis said, "The most visible difference is the vehicle blockers in the park, which have been put in recently based upon a recommendation by the security service for obvious reasons because of recent terrorist attacks." He said that there was also "an increase in surveillance both by the security services and ourselves." He added that many of the increased measures were "under the radar" and the club could not talk about them (GUARDIAN, 7/3).
