Women's tennis creates own sexism row with best dressed at Wimbledon vote

Spain's Garbine Muguruza returns a shot at Wimbledon. Photo / AP

By Claire Cohen of the Telegraph

When looking back at the Wimbledon 2017 ladies singles, what will you think? Perhaps, you might remember the success of British player Johanna Konta, who made it through to the last four and cemented her place in the nation's hearts. Possibly, you will marvel at the incredible talent of Venus Williams, who reached the final in this, her 20th Wimbledon.

What you most likely won't spend any time pondering, if which female player looked the best. But, as the SW19 tournament draws to a close, that is exactly what the Women's Tennis Association has been doing.

The WTA - which is the organising body of women's professional tennis and describes itself as 'the global leader in women's professional sport' - this week asked tennis fans to choose the female player they thought was best dressed at Wimbledon.

#Wimbledon Best Dressed? 👗 🎾

VOTE--> https://t.co/kXGMdhJ6Hw pic.twitter.com/EgNM0sHM7X

— wta (@WTA) July 10, 2017

Seriously. The options were Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova, Angelique Kerber, Heather Watson, Kristina Mladenovic, Dominika Cibulkova, Carina Witthoeft and Alizé Cornet.

"Despite the all-white clothing rule, women's tennis players always impress with their innovative and stylish outfits, as their clothing sponsors go an extra mile to create visually interesting designs by playing with a wide range of textures and materials, combining them in unique ways," it reads.

Thankfully, not much gets past social media these days and outraged Twitter users piled in to criticise the WTA as sexist.

It was accused of 'objectifying' women and reducing the players to their looks.

Very poor - how about celebrating these women as athletes not clothes horses?

— Sue C 🐯 (@SueEllCee) July 10, 2017

Seriously WTA? How can you promote female tennis players as athletes while simultaneously asking for votes as to who is best dressed?

— Dr Julianne Stack (@stackju) July 10, 2017

Despite the backlash, the poll - which describes the women's clothing as 'stunning', 'beautiful' and 'feminine' - is still open (Simona Halep is in the lead with 33 per cent of the vote, were you interested).

A spokesperson for the WTA said: "Tennis has a rich history linking the sport with fashion, and this is no more evident than at The Championships. The traditional all-white dress code at Wimbledon is one of the most famous and iconic aspects of tennis, and the recent WTA best-dressed poll was created to celebrate this unique feature of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

"We see nothing wrong with promoting athleticism while celebrating Wimbledon's wonderful dress code."

The row comes in the wake of other sexism accusations at Wimbledon 2017, including a debate over the scheduling of men's and women's matches on the show courts.

During an interview on BBC 5 Live, Chris Evert brought up the issue of the fact that while men and women earn equal amounts at every stage throughout the tournament, there needs to be a discussion about why there isn't equal representation on Centre Court and Court One.

"Instead of four men's matches and two women's matches, I would like to see, and I think all women would like to see, three men's matches and three women's matches to go along with the equal prize money," she said.