Wimbledon chief Richard Lewis insists placing more men’s matches on the tournament’s show courts is not favouritism but simply reflects what spectators want to see.

With all the tournament’s fourth-round matches taking place on Monday, Centre Court and Court One were both stacked with male players as has been customary at SW19 so far.

In the opening seven days of play, 14 matches on Centre Court have been from the men’s singles draw while only eight have come from the women’s.

The bias on Court One, Wimbledon’s second show court, is less pronounced, with 12 male ties to 10 female so far, but Monday’s scheduling there again came out two-to-one for the men.

Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Venus Williams were handed Centre Court for the last 16 while Johanna Konta, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were put on Court One.

World No.1 Angelique Kerber’s battle with French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was among the female matches to be overlooked, instead relegated to Court Two.

“I wouldn’t say it’s favouritism. I would say it’s taking the marquee matches,” All England Club chief executive Lewis said.

“It’s not about male or female, in the end it’s about which matches you feel the public and broadcasters want to see.”

Asked if female players could only gain greater popularity with more exposure, Lewis pointed to the last three women’s rounds, which will have days without men’s singles matches on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The other three grand slam tournaments routinely put four, or even five, daily matches on their show courts but Lewis said Wimbledon crowds would struggle to make an earlier start.

“We view these things from time to time. It doesn’t work for us,” Lewis said.