Wimbledon bosses today denied choosing which women play on Centre Court based solely on their looks.

On Friday eighth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus took to the showcourt to play Romanian world number 27 Sorana Cirstea.

But the glamorous 19-year-olds were not enough of a draw for the Centre Court Crowd and at times played in front of a half empty stadium.

On the same day world number two Serena Williams sounded put out to have been scheduled to play on Court No 2.

And other top women players have also questioned the schedule.

All England Club spokesman Johnny Perkins said today: "We don't look at a player and say she is attractive or he is attractive, therefore they play on the big court.

"But if a player is deemed to be popular, for whatever reason, they are more likely to be on one of the bigger courts."

He said this was to "provide value for money" for ticket holders and for the sake of crowd management.

Mr Perkins said the order of play was decided based on a complex mixture of factors, including ranking, and added: "At the end of the day box office appeal has to be taken into consideration."

The final say on the order of play goes to tournament referee Andrew Jarrett, who has a team of advisors.

Mr Perkins said: "Media in general are entitled to feed in their wishes."

On Wednesday, in a matched dubbed the "battle of the babes", world number 45 Gisela Dulko from Argentina was pitted against Russian world number 60, and former champion, Maria Sharapova.

And the following day Danish ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki defeated Russian world number 59 Maria Kirilenko.