LTA leads call for removal of search bias as part of drive for increased visibility of women’s sport

The findings highlight that people who want to find information about women’s tennis need to complete deeper, or more specific searches, to find the information they are looking for, with information about male tennis professionals competing in competitions being more prominently presented and more easily accessible.

Tennis has historically led the way for women in sport, with women’s and mixed gender matches having been in place at the sport’s major events for well over 100 years, equal prize money a firmly established principle at Grand Slams, and females officiating men’s and women’s matches as well as operating in senior roles off the court. 

As a result, tennis is often regarded as the most gender equal sport, with a 50:50 gender split for participation among children, and tennis being the only sport to have females represented in Forbes’ list of the world’s highest paid athletes. 

However, there remain areas where further progress is needed. Alongside a range of activity being put in place specifically to address gender participation disparities as children move into adulthood and to achieve a more balanced workforce, particularly in coaching, the LTA is also focusing on measures to close the visibility gap for women’s tennis.

Julie Porter, LTA Chief Operating Officer and the organisation’s Executive lead for our women and girls activity, said: “Greater visibility is crucial for women’s tennis and for women’s sport in general in terms of building the perception of sport as being something for women, and in turn leading to greater participation. We’ve seen recently that the women’s finals at Grand Slams have attracted more television viewers than the men’s finals, but that visibility is not yet reflected in the balance of what people see when they search.

“It is genuinely shocking to see how dominated these results are by male-specific information. While gender parity in search is an issue that reaches far beyond just sport, if it is like this for a leading women’s sport like tennis then it demonstrates just how important it is that this issue is addressed.

“As part of our plans to transform tennis in Britain, we want to drive change with an ultimate goal of becoming a truly gender balanced sport across all aspects of tennis. There is more we can all do to achieve that, including ourselves, but we need others to help too. That’s why we are calling on search engines and digital content providers to play their part in addressing this issue and helping us raise the visibility of women’s sport.”

Highlighting the search visibility bias follows work the LTA has started to do itself to deliver a more gender equal balance of coverage across its own social media channels and website, with that work recently being highlighted by the Women’s Sport Trust as an example of best practice for sports governing bodies.

Supporting the LTA’s call for more to be done to boost the visibility of women’s sport in search results, Tammy Parlour, CEO and co-founder of the Women’s Sport Trust, said: “The Women's Sport Trust aims to raise the profile of women’s sport and female athletes so we can use the power of sport to accelerate gender equality and stimulate social change. One of the main drivers to unlocking this growth will be to increase the visibility of female athletes and teams. We support the work the LTA has done and call on all industry stakeholders, including technology companies, to play their role in increasing this visibility in whatever way they can.”

To find out more about International Women’s Day visit www.internationalwomensday.com.

WATCH: Celebrating the journey of women's tennis

What you see when you search for 'best tennis players in the world'

A list of the tennis players displayed in the 'athlete carousel' on Google based on an example search for 'best tennis players in the world':

1. Male – Novak Djokovic
2. Male – Roger Federer
3. Male – Rafael Nadal
4. Male – Pete Sampras
5. Male – Andre Agassi
6. Male – John McEnroe
7. Male – Rod Laver
8. Male – Bjorn Borg
9. Male – Jimmy Connors
10. Male – Ivan Lendl
11. Male – Andy Murray
12. Male – Daniil Medvedev
13. Male – Stefanos Tsitsipas
14. Male – Alexander Zverev
15. Male – Matteo Berretttini
16. Male – Hubert Hurkacz
17. Male – Jannik Sinner
18. Male – Andrey Rublev
19. Male – Casper Ruud
20. Female – Serena Williams
21. Male – Felix Auger Aliassime
22. Male – Diego Schwartzman
23. Male – Dominic Thiem
24. Male – Cameron Norrie
25. Male – Denis Shapovalov
26. Male – Kei Nishikori
27. Male – Grigor Dimitrov
28. Male – Fabio Fognini
29. Male – John Isner
30. Male - Pablo Carreño Busta
31. Male – Marin Čilić
32. Male – David Goffin
33. Male – Taylor Fritz
34. Male – Reilly Opelka
35. Male - Nikoloz Basilashvili
36. Male – Roberto Bautista Agut
37. Male – Kevin Anderson
38. Male - Gaël Monfils
39. Male – Benoit Paire
40. Male – Karen Khachanov
41. Male – Richard Gasquet
42. Male – Alex de Minaur
43. Male – Lorenzo Sonego
44. Male - Carlos Alcaraz
45. Male – Aslan Karaetsev
46. Male – Dan Evans
47. Male – Alexander Bublik
48. Male – Marco Cecchinato
49. Male – Ugo Humbert
50. Male – Albert Ramos-Vinolas
51. Male – Dušan Lajović

About the LTA Gender Equality in Search Report

The LTA Gender Equality in Search Report is based on comprehensive research conducted in the UK in August 2021 and updated in February 2022, analysing 8,307 keywords which returned 154,579 URLs.  The report was commissioned to establish the extent of the inherent gender balance in search results, and while specific examples serve to highlight this, it should be noted a number of factors influence the results presented and that not all users around the world will always see exactly the same search results, with search results also varying over time.