Wimbledon will replace its honour roll boards before next month's tournament — to remove the marital titles "Mrs" and "Miss" that have been used in front of women's names — in order to bring them into line with the men's boards.
Since the tournament began in 1877, the honorific denoting marital status has always been given to women players while men have been listed on the boards with just their first initial and surname, meaning last year's men's singles winner Novak Djokovic is presented as "N. Djokovic".
The women's champions, meanwhile, have always had an honorific denoting their marital status, so 2021 women's singles winner Ash Barty is listed as "Miss A. Barty".
Former grand slam winner Chris Evert was listed as "Mrs. J.M. Lloyd" when she won the 1981 Wimbledon title after marrying John Lloyd, while her name both before her marriage and after their divorce in 1987 reads as "Miss C.M. Evert". The rule change means she will now be referred to as "C.M. Evert" for all three titles.
Other iconic women players whose names are engraved along similar lines are Billie Jean King, who remains listed as "Mrs. L.W. King", despite her divorce from Larry King in 1987, and Evonne Goolagong Cawley, whose name reads "Mrs. R. Cawley" for her 1980 victory.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club has made moves in recent years to modernise and equalise the game after coming under increased criticism for being outdated.
A 2018 New York Times article drew attention to the standard practice of umpires identifying women players with their marital prefixes while only calling out male players' surnames during matches.
A year later, Wimbledon dropped the use of honorifics when umpires were calling a game's scores, which came as a surprise to some players such as Djokovic.
"I thought that tradition was very unique and very special. I thought it was nice," the Serbian said at the time.
"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."
Footage of Ash Barty's name being unveiled on Wimbledon's honour boards after her victory last year drew even more attention to the practice.
As originally reported in The Times, the grand slam event is set to continue its drive for equality by re-writing the honour boards around the club, with the most visible board being in the clubhouse itself.
The move comes as Wimbledon was stripped of ranking points by the ATP and WTP tours for its hard-line ban on Russian and Belarusian players, essentially reducing the grand slam event to an exhibition tournament.
