London: Three senior players in women's tennis have accused Wimbledon organisers of favouring male players in the tournament draw.
Venus and Serena Williams, along with No 2 seed Jelena Jankovic, were unhappy at being forced to play their fourth-round women’s singles matches away from the two showpiece courts at SW19.
The Williams sisters played on Court No 2, where both recorded resounding victories, Scotsman.com reported.
However, Jankovic was dumped out of the tournament by world No 60 Tamarine Tanasugarn in straight sets on Court No 18.
And it was both the timing and the location of her match that left injury-hit Jankovic fuming.
Jankovic pleaded for a late start on yesterday to improve her chances of recovering, so was upset to discover she had been handed a midday match.
“I was really not happy with the scheduling. I asked to play a little bit later, which would give me a few more hours to recover. I’m asking why is the No 2 seed playing on Court 18? It’s also not normal that Venus plays on Court Two. It makes no sense,” she said.
However, Jankovic said she would not be making an official complaint to tournament organisers.
Meanwhile, defending champion Venus Williams was reluctant to make too big an issue of her snub.
But when it was put to her the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were always on Centre Court or Court One, while the top women were moved, she replied: “It’s true.”
Serena added: I do think it is weird (that I was playing on that court), especially having a female champion who has won this tournament four times.”
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