Wimbledon Controversy: Venus Williams and Simona Halep Suffering for Biased Move Doesn’t Sit Right With Tennis Fans

For Venus Williams, a five-time Grass Grand Slam champion, Wimbledon hold a special place. It was on the hallowed grass courts that she and her sister Serena had rewritten tennis history, inspiring generations of young women, particularly Black girls, to pick up a racquet. Halep’s story is different. Growing up in Romania, her preference for the red clay, evident in her 2018 French Open victory, had her jokingly referring to grass as a surface for “picnics”. But something shifted within Halep in 2019. She pulled a stunning upset over Serena Williams, the queen of grass! Now, both Venus and Halep are left with a bitter taste.

The All England Club announced 14 wildcards today. The list of players reveals a huge bias in favor of the British players. In the men’s category, all seven players hail from Great Britain. For the women, four local women are given the priority in the list. The other three are Naomi Osaka of Japan, Angelique Kerber of Germany, and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark. 

Kerber, currently down at down at 224th in the world rankings after being off the court for 18 months on maternity break, won the Grand Slam in 2018 and was the runner-up in 2016. Similarly, Osaka, who reached the quarterfinals of the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships last week, has progressed to the third round at Wimbledon on two occasions. Whereas Wozniacki has made it to the last 16 a total of six times. This is not the first time that Wimbledon organizers have been accused of bias concerning low-ranked players. 

Alize Cornet, a former world number 11 from France, feels lower-ranked players are treated differently at Wimbledon compared to big names. This statement came after her second-round defeat to the defending champion, Elena Rybakina, at Wimbledon 2023. “It’s a different treatment on every Slam,” she said. “…in Wimbledon, you have a huge difference between the seeded players and the other players. This is not new…” But what angered fans was the absence of some other crucial names.

Several fans took to their social media platform to question the absence of Venus Williams and Simona Halep on the list. While Simona won the Grand Slam in 2019, Venus is a 5-time champion on the grass court. Ranked at 1130 and 444 respectively, both Halep and Williams could not find a spot at the 2024 Wimbledon. Fans were quick to point this out and accused the organizers of bias.

Fans lash out at Wimbledon main draw wild card list calling it ‘disgusting’

Taking to the microblogging platform, a user slammed Wimbledon for reducing the grand slam to the levels of an ATP 250 tour:

Similar was the case 12 years back! After the 2012 Wimbledon match against British tennis player Andy Murray, Ivo Karlovic shouted about foul behavior by Wimbledon officials and the linesman. “I feel cheated,” Karlovic said. Karlovic, who was foot-faulted 11 times said that this is unusual and outrageous. “On a grand slam, Centre Court, it was outrageous. They were definitely biased. Not Wimbledon, but the whole of the UK are so desperate to see Andy Murray win.” 

Another user questioned the absence of Venus Williams. “No Venus 😢,” the user wrote. This was extremely shocking for many to not give a place to the five-time champion of the grand slam. Venus Williams, who was injured during a match in 2023 Wimbledon, has been facing difficulty in returning to her form since then. Another user retweeted the post and called the Great-Britain-bias, “Disgusting.”

The series of backlashes continued as one more user called out the partiality towards British players. “just three players who aren’t british (what does that say about the state of british tennis loooool) ….. Oaska and Wozniacki and 1 in the ladies qualies…..” Another user questioned the absence of Romanian tennis star Simona Halep:

Halep has failed to appear at Wimbledon since her drug ban. After a four years ban from the WTA Tour, the former world No.1 was given a wildcard to the 2024 Miami Open but she lost in the first round against Paula Badosa. In the WTA 125 tournament, playing for second time since return, Romanian chose to stop playing in the second set after suffering an apparent knee injury against 123rd-ranked McCartney Kessler.

Like Wimbledon this year, Halep, a former Roland Garros champion, did not receive a wild card into recently-concluded clay-court Slam. Most recently, Halep’s former publicist Katie Spellman reported that she did not request a wildcard from Wimbledon because her knee was not ready 100% to compete.

With the Grand Slam nearing close, it will be interesting to see if more such decisions are taken by the organizers. While these decisions definitely impact the morale of the players, it is necessary to develop a resilient attitude to stand out in the mega stage.