If motherhood is a career killer, it is no surprise women remain so under-represented in sport, a sector that has been surprisingly slow to embrace the benefits of equalityWaiting for sport to catch up with modern life can be like watching paint dry. You know it’s going to happen eventually but the rate of progress is painful. How the Women’s Tennis Association is only now coming under pressure to review its policy around seeding and maternity leave is mind-boggling. From Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, to Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka, women have been having babies and returning to high-profile tennis careers for decades.Would we even be having this conversation if it wasn’t for Queen Serena? Consistently asking the big...
Having clarified that they can offer the seven-time Wimbledon champion a seeding, the All England Club must do the right thing or risk being seen to punish a player for having a babyThere are a few good reasons Wimbledon should break with precedent and offer a player ranked 449 in the world a seeding at this year’s championships. The overriding one is the fact that the player has won the tournament seven times and is called Serena Williams.Given the state of flux in the women’s game, the finest women’s player of the modern era might well be the best player in the 2018 draw – certainly nobody in the top 32 would relish playing her in the first round if...
The greatest champion of the modern era has had to achieve it all to a backdrop of thinly veiled racism and unjust criticism – sadly, her having a baby is unlikely to change anythingWould someone please give Serena Williams a break? Two weeks into her comeback, seven months after giving birth to daughter Olympia (her name chosen from a shortlist of those associated with strength), the winner of 23 grand slam singles crowns was forced to endure another round of the rubbish that has been as consistent a part of her career as the titles.Williams had to enter the Miami Open this week as an unseeded player, a wildcard in fact. This despite the fact that she left for her...
Despite Serena Williams’s absence, the women’s draw provided more excitement than the men’sWith close friend Caroline Wozniacki competing for her maiden grand slam, seven-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams went to bed, “too nervous to watch”. This is not the first time Williams has publicly admitted to “turning the channel” on a tournament she has made her own, but this time the inference could not have been more different. The irony is that in this case Williams missed a classic; an epic all the more impressive given her sizeable absence.After all, publicity for the 2018 women’s draw began with Craig Tiley doing his best to hype Williams’ possible return, at one point promising there was “no question” she would be...
Bristol City celebration and Cricket World Cup final were among the highlights in a year when sport too often seemed to reflect the corrosion of the world around itThe sight of Bristol City’s manager sweeping up a 10-year-old ballboy in a dance of pure joy to celebrate their team’s last-minute cup victory over mighty Manchester United last week added a note of sweetness to a year of conflict and contradictions. Many sports lovers had found themselves spending too much time in 2017 worrying about the integrity of what they were being asked to applaud: the integrity of the competitor, the integrity of the competition.From state-sponsored doping to tax avoidance, from child-abuse cover-ups to corruption in sport’s most powerful governing bodies, so...