At Wimbledon, Looks Matter

My attention toward the world of sports has been taken up with soccer recently. But, with the Confederations Cup over and almost a full year until the World Cup, I decided to catch up on Wimbledon. Oh, how I almost instantly regretted it. "Good looks are a factor," All England Club Spokesman Johnny Perkins told the Daily Mail in explaining why the top-seeded female players were not being scheduled for the highly visible Centre Court.

Of course, this isn't the first time sexism has been brought up this season at Wimbledon. Former tennis Champion Michael Stich recently caused a stir when he complained that female tennis players who grunted while playing weren't sexy, and endorsement deals in most sports are often offered to very attractive or charismatic players with only mediocre records. But, pandering by officials to the idea that the attractiveness of female athletes should matter strikes me as especially low -- especially when combined with how hard it is to imagine an equivalent statement being made about male athletes.

Furthermore, the justification often given for focusing on looks over players' rankings -- that these are the matches crowds most want to see -- doesn't even seem to be true. The Daily Mail notes that a recent Centre Court match against 28-seeded Victoria Azarenka and 8-seeded Sorana Cirstea had plenty of empty seats.