Your article on Venus and Serena Williams and how they “paved the way” for black players on the tennis tour (Gauff gets to thank Venus for growing influence, 3 July) overlooked the achievements of Althea Gibson. In 1956 she became the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam event and would go on to win another 10, including Wimbledon twice. Bob Ryland, a former coach of Venus and Serena, said neither would have beaten Althea Gibson.
Colin Maitland
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire
• I hope Alison van Uytvanck and Greet Minnen, the first openly gay couple to play doubles at Wimbledon (Report, 4 July), will appreciate the irony of their winning in straight sets.
Martin Cotton
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
• An earlier sculpture by Rowland Emett (Chitty Bang Bang designer’s train fantasy for sale, 3 July) was on an agricultural theme and was titled The Hog-Muddle All-Purpose Rotatory Niggler and Fidgeter Machine. Perhaps it was a forward-looking reference to the current Brexit position in Westminster, and the Tory leadership election? I saw it in Morecambe in 1957.
David Cockayne
Lymm, Cheshire
• Re poetry books (Letters, 3 July), how about the wonderful Carnegie medal-winning The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and new poet laureate Simon Armitage’s stirringly enjoyable Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic, for starters?
Clare Addison
Marston, Oxfordshire
• I can heartily recommend You Took the Last Bus Home, the first collection of poems from Brian Bilston, the poet laureate of Twitter.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
• I was hoping Steve Bell might catch on to Johnson’s “crack negotiating team”, but his 29 bum salute (3 July) will do. Thank you, Steve.
Rowan Vuglar
London
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• The third letter in this package was amended on 5 July 2019 because an earlier version missed out the word “Rotatory” from the title of Rowland Emett’s sculpture The Hog-Muddle All-Purpose Rotatory Niggler and Fidgeter Machine. This has been corrected.
