Women's Tennis Association chief Stacy Allaster is backing Serena Wiliams' claim that she was snubbed by being "exiled to an outside court" at Wimbledon, AFP reports. Allaster said she was "disappointed" by the decision.
Williams, the defending champion, was furious that her second round clash with Romania's Simona Halep on Thursday had been relegated to Court Two, in the far reaches of the All England Club.
The American insisted that Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the world's top two men, would never be forced to play away from either Centre Court or Court One.
Allaster, the head of the WTA, backed the superstar's complaints. "Serena Williams is a four-time Wimbledon singles champion, the defending champion of Wimbledon, and a 13-time Grand Slam singles champion. I share her disappointment," said Allaster in a statement.
"They like to put us on Court 2, me and Venus, for whatever reason. I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe one day we'll figure it out," said Serena." They (Nadal and Djokovic) are never moved across … "
Source: AFP.
Williams added, "I don't make it a big issue, but I think at some point maybe I should." The fact that she's obtained the support of a high-ranking women's tennis official suggests that she's made exactly the right size issue of it — and that hopefully she won't see any more than her fair share of that outside court in the future.
Read more at AFP.
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