Wimbledon brings in unisex towels for players, scrapping gendered rules ‘for first time in tournament’s history’

Tennis tournament describes move as ‘progression’ towards gender equality

Venus Williams of the US uses a towel during the women's singles first round match against Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu on day two of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London (AP)

Wimbledon has done away with different coloured towels for men and women players for the first time, in another move towards gender equality.

Traditionally, male players received the classic green and purple “Championship” towels, while women received “seasonal” towels of different colours. In 2019, women received pink and turquoise towels.

But this year, players are being offered one of each towel when they step on to the court. The seasonal towels this year are blue and yellow.

The gendered towels were one of the last male/female distinctions to be scrapped, according to a Wimbledon source, after the tournament committed to equal pay in 2007 and pledged to post the same number of tweets about male and female players.

Wimbledon also dropped the practice of announcing scores in women’s matches using the titles Miss and Mrs.

According to The Times, the source described the move as a “progression”, adding that the players did not have a preference for either colour.

They said: “We were looking at tradition and wondering why it was a tradition. It’s one of the few sports where they are genuinely equal.”

However, there were no plans to create a new cup for women and a new plate for men, which are handed out as singles trophies.

Wimbledon also revealed that they expect to sell out of the towels, which are popular souvenirs among spectators, by the middle of next week after they started flying off the shelves unexpectedly in the first two days of the tournament.

In 2019, 27,419 Championships’ towels were sold across the two weeks of the tournament. However, Wimbledon had ordered a more “conservative” number of towels this year dye to uncertainty surrounding the number of fans who would be allowed to watch.

Officials said they were surprised by how many supporters wanted a souvenir after the tournament was cancelled last year.

The Independent has contacted Wimbledon for comment.