Murray calls for more matches on centre court for ‘equal split’
World No 1 suggests play should start earlier and women’s games should feature more prominently
ANDY MURRAY last night urged Wimbledon to begin play on Centre Court earlier each day as he became involved in a sexism row over scheduling.
Critics have complained that the All England Club’s show courts – Centre and No1 Court – are routinely hosting two men’s games and only one women’s match per day.
Last night, Murray led the calls for the tournament to begin holding four matches a day on the courts.
“I think ideally you would have two men’s and two women’s on Centre – potentially starting the matches a bit earlier would allow for that,” he said.
He added: “[They] need to maybe find a way of allowing for an equal split of the men’s and women’s matches across the tournament rather than just looking at one day. If there’s better matches on the women’s side than the men’s side, you can flip it. If there’s better matches on the men’s side, then that has to go first, as well.”
Venus Williams also suggested it was something officials “should consider”.
But Richard Lewis, Wimbledon chief executive, claimed that the high cost of train travel would not allow them to increase the number of matches.
He said that because many spectators travel from around the UK he needed to ensure that they can arrive at the grounds on off-peak, cheaper train services. “Already you see fans struggling to get into No 1 and Centre for the 1pm start of play,” he said.
“People travel from large distances and they want to use off-peak fares and getting to the stadiums is a challenge. So three matches on those courts work for us, it’s a tried and tested formula. We review these things for time to time – it doesn’t work for us.”
While Murray, Roger Federer and Venus Williams were given top billing on Centre Court, British hopeful Johanna Konta was relegated to No 1 Court, world number one Angelique Kerber to Court 2 and French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko to Court 12. Ostapenko and Konta won but, in a huge shock, Kerber lost. Ostapenko yesterday said: “I think I deserve to play on a better court than Court 12.”
Earlier, Mr Lewis said in response to criticism by Chris Evert, the BBC commentator and former world number one, that while he understood why concerns were raised, the top male players “speak for themselves”.
He added: “In the end, it’s not about male-female, in the end, it’s about who the public and broadcasters most of all want to see.”
Murray struggled to keep his cool during his 7-6 (7/1) 6-4 6-4 victory over Benoit Paire yesterday, as he became embroiled in a row with umpire Mohamed Lahyani, who seemed not to hear Murray’s request for a challenge. Next up for the Scot on Wednesday is Sam Querrey in the quarter-final.
‘Ideally you would have two men’s and two women’s on Centre – potentially starting the matches a bit earlier would allow for that’