Wimbledon courts controversy over venue for Venus' WIlliams' second-round match

Eighth seed Williams, 36, played her first-round match on Court One but is relegated to an arena with a seating capacity of around 800 for a clash with Greece's Maria Sakkari.

A backlog of matches caused by the wet weather means Thursday is busier than usual, with several first-round matches still incomplete.

However the decision to afford American Williams such a small stage for what may be one of her final Wimbledon matches drew derision among tennis fans.

Londoner Lauren Gibbs wrote on Twitter: "If I was Venus Williams I would never play Wimbledon again now. Court 18 is total disrespect!"

Tig Wallace, also from London, wrote: "Five-time champion Venus Williams on court 18 tomorrow - that's the worst scheduling decision I've ever seen at @Wimbledon"

New York-based HarlemWriter questioned the move, writing: ".@Wimbledon Whatchu talkin' bout #Wimbledon, scheduling Queen Venus in the Outer Reaches? #Venus4CentreCourt"

Mark Barton from Cheshire asked if Wimbledon would consider putting one of its recent men's champions on such a minor court.

Canada-based Stanley Liu called the move "deplorable" and told Wimbledon to "have some respect for your icons."

Among the seeds scheduled to play on larger courts than Williams were men's fifth seed Kei Nishikori, handed a Centre Court berth despite never previously going beyond the Wimbledon fourth round, plus Gilles Simon, Dominic Thiem, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Bernard Tomic, Timea Bacsinszky and Belinda Bencic.

Williams won her first Wimbledon title in 2000, and added further triumphs at the All England Club in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

She has not commented on her court scheduling.