Take a look at this headline from the UK's Daily Mail: Babe, set and match: Why looks count for more than talent when Wimbledon decides which girls will play on Centre Court.

This has to be a mistake, right? I mean, it's 2009.

Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs 36 years ago, proving that women have the power to attract attention for their skills, not something as shallow as their looks. We are the generation that witnessed the Williams sisters pummel the ball with as much (and sometimes more) ferocity as the men.

Isn't babe ogling a little passé? Shouldn't women be appreciated for their tremendous tennis talent and not their short skirts?

Apparently not, according the Daily Mail.

The paper reports that a spokesman for the All England Club (the venue which hosts the event) admits "physical attractiveness is taken into consideration" when determining who plays at Centre Court and what players are relegated to the other courts.

"Good looks are a factor," Spokesman Johnny Perkins told the paper.

For its part, a BBC source, which broadcasts the matches, said: "It's the Wimbledon play committee, not us who decides on the order of play. But, obviously it's advantageous to us if there are good-looking women players on Centre Court...Our preference would always be a Brit or a babe as this always delivers high viewing figures."

Of course, any woman that makes it to Wimbledon is tremendously talented. But, when you have Victoria Azarenka seeded 8th and Sorana Cirstea seeded 28th at Centre Court while second seed Serena Williams and Roberta Vinci are simultaneously playing on Court 2, priorities seem a bit skewed.

Are viewers really that stupid? It seems the BBC is doing their home audience a disservice by assuming they enjoy watching women play simply for prurient reasons.
Female athletes have always struggled to be validated for their skills and not viewed as sex objects. But, perhaps more than most sports, tennis seems particularly prone this type of sexualizing.

Take for example, Frank Deford's recent NPR commentary where he defends a female tennis players' right to make noise on the court. Is it free speech and expression Deford values?

Umm...I wouldn't say that:

"I always thought the best grunter of all was a Romanian player named Virginia Ruzici of the 1970s whose shriek reminded one and all, vicariously, of ecstasy," says the almost giddy Deford. He then goes on to say, "Give me a good grunt on the tennis court any day...Listen, I may not remember much about the sounds of sport of 30 years ago, but the sensual cries of the long-forgotten Virginia Ruzici still sound like music to my ears."

One word: Ew.

Idealist I may be, but I think it's high time the world of sport (especially broadcast media) start embracing women for the fierce competitors they are--not the sex objects TV hopes will bring in ratings.