Serena Williams is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time – a seven-time Wimbledon champion and winner of an astonishing 23 Grand Slam titles in all. Even so, should she have been given a wild card to enter this year’s Wimbledon championship? No, not really: a player who has been out of competition for years should not receive a direct entry into a Grand Slam without even playing a proper warm-up tournament. It smacks of a decision based on nostalgia and a desire for cheap headlines on the part of the All England Club.

Wimbledon relies more than ever on marquee names to attract a global TV audience, and they don’t come much bigger than Williams. It is, however, a slap in the face for many younger, and far less famous, tennis players who slog their way through the tennis circuit in the hope of a once-in-a-lifetime wild card for Wimbledon.

Why bother when the tennis authorities would much rather give a helping hand to an ageing icon? In doing so, Wimbledon has opted for a nostalgia fest as far removed from........

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