Duke allows curtsies to bow out of Wimbledon

Bowing and curtsying on the Centre Court at Wimbledon will cease forthwith by Royal Proclamation of the Duke of Kent.

The Duke, president of the All England Club since 1969, has decided it is time for competitors to dispense with sport's quaintest tradition.

Starting at this year's championships in June, players will only have to bow or curtsy to the Royal Box if the Queen or the Prince of Wales are in attendance. The Queen has not visited Wimbledon since her Silver Jubilee in 1977, when Virginia Wade became the last British player to win a singles title.

Tim Phillips, the club's chairman, said: "The Duke would say that the tradition of bowing and curtsying is on the way out."

Wimbledon has always been big on protocol, and there was a touch of the vapours in the 1920s when the French champion, Suzanne Lenglen, was mistakenly thought to have snubbed Queen Mary.