Wimbledon Will No Longer Address Female Players as ‘Miss,’ ‘Ms.,’ and ‘Mrs.’

Wimbledon, one of tennis's Grand Slam tournaments, got underway this week in England. Kate Middleton has already dropped by to watch matches, and the first major upset is in the books as 15-year-old American Cori "Coco" Gauff defeated one of her idols, Venus Williams, on Monday (July 1).

But there's another substantial talking point at this year's championships that is making headlines: Umpires will no longer refer to female players as "Miss," "Ms.," or "Mrs." during matches. In the past, when a woman won a game, set, or match, the umpire would announce, for example, "Game, Mrs. [insert name here]." This is different from the men's matches, during which players are referred to only by their last names. More attention was called to the tradition when Serena Williams was referred to as "Mrs. Williams" after her marriage to Alexis Ohanian, even though she chose to keep her own name (some etiquette books say "Mrs." is only used with a woman's maiden name if she is divorced). (Last month the French Open made a similar decision, while the U.S. and Australian Opens make no such gender distinction when addressing players during matches.)