Wimbledon to drop 'Miss' and 'Mrs' on female honours boards

Wimbledon is erasing "Miss" and "Mrs" in a modernisation of its honours boards for female winners as part of the latest equality drive at the All England Club.

New boards will be installed by the start of the tournament next month, three years after the titles were also dropped by umpires calling out scores during matches.

Sally Bolton, the first female chief executive of the club since its formation in 1868, has overseen a number of small tweaks to bridge the gender divide. Wimbledon had been the slowest of the four tennis grand slams to hand out equal prize money but she also moved last year to give male and female players the same towels for the first time.

She also quietly introduced a 50/50 split on the “show courts” of Centre and No 1 even before Emma Raducanu, the US Open champion, became the main ticket attraction for British fans.

All honours boards around the famous grounds are now set to change, including the most visible one in the clubhouse. Traditionally, the boards have carried the initial and surname of the men's winner, but the women’s winner had her title included too. Last year’s winner Ashleigh Barty was on the board as Miss A Barty, while Novak Djokovic was N Djokovic.

The practice of giving married women winners the initials and surnames of their husbands is also being changed. When Chris Evert won her second title in 1981, her singles title was recorded as Mrs J M Lloyd due her marriage to John Lloyd. The new board will be altered to C Evert Lloyd for the 1981 entry. Billie-Jean King’s titles will also be changed. No married women have won singles titles in recent years.

However, in attempting to strike a balance around its modernisations, Wimbledon will continue to refer to the "Gentlemen’s" and