Ballkids? No thanks, we’ll stick to boys and girls says Wimbledon
Ball boys and girls line up at Wimbledon in 2019. Photograph: Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto/Allstar
The slogan for this year’s Wimbledon is “Always like never before”, a nod to the All England Club’s annual balancing act in modernising while maintaining some of the traditions it holds so proud. But while the club and the tournament are expanding all the time, with the proposed development on the grounds of the old golf club across the road expected to be approved later this summer, some things stay the same.
Unlike the other three Grand Slams – the Australian Open, French Open and the US Open – Wimbledon persists in using the gender-specific terms ball “boys” and “girls”. The US Open, which uses people of all ages for the role, calls them “ball crew” while it’s “ballkids” in Melbourne and Paris. The All England Club, which is proud of having what it feels are the best ball boys and girls in the business, said on Saturday that there are no plans to change their titles.
Wimbledon has not been afraid to change over the years, with modernisation including the building of a roof over the two main courts. The Centre Court roof was installed in 2009 and the new No 1 Court opened in 2019. However, like a ship turning around, Wimbledon tends to be agonisingly slow to enact change, sometimes only doing so when criticised.
Wimbledon was the last of the four Grand Slams, along with the French, to award equal prize money for women and men, in 2007, which only came about after Venus Williams wrote an open letter in the Times the previous year, asking for them to catch up with the times. “The message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling,” Williams wrote. “My fear is that Wimbledon is loudly and clearly sending the opposite message.”
After a New York Times article in 2018, Wimbledon stopped the practice of referring to players on court as Mr, Miss or Mrs the following year. And it’s only two years since they finally removed the “Mrs” before female champions’ names on the honour roll in the clubhouse. Another rule that shows no sign of changing is the one concerning players’ clothing. While Wimbledon introduced a new rule in 2023 allowing women to wear coloured undershorts, the players still have to wear “almost entirely white”.