We all know it's a long-standing tradition at Wimbledon for players' to dress in all white sport gear and wear the correct footwear (last year Federer got told off for wearing orange soles). But is the stringent (and expanding) list of rules for players' underwear a sign things may have gone a bit too far?
According to the Times*, it emerged that the All England Club's white clothing policy would be 'tightened' such as checking players' underwear to make sure all clothing complied. Following this, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki said today that she was intending to wear 'coloured underwear [because] you can see through. [But] getting it checked though would be creepy.' We totally agree. In what other line of work would be OK to check somebody's knick-knacks?
Specifically, the rules involve not wearing any coloured underwear that can be seen through their whites when they sweat during matches (er, how can you really police how much someone is going to sweat btw?) and apparently is causing 'upset in the locker room'. The rule about knickers isn't just that they need to be white however, but they must also 'contain no more than 1cm of coloured trim'. Best get the ruler out. And we thought going underwear shopping was a bit of a tricky chore as it is.
And it's not just a knicker problem. According to Australian tennis player Pat Cash, this strict dress code meant that some of the players were 'forced to play braless' when not being completely white, and sent back to the locker rooms to change their clothes.
The worst part of it all is that the players had been sent a note to say that as a 'last resort' offenders would be sent to the Referee's Office where a 'supply of suitable clothing' would be available. However, thankfully, it has been confirmed that 'replacement underwear' isn't available as part of the spare clothes.
This kind of reminds us of when teachers overly checked our school uniforms and told us off for rolling up our skirts. And that time you forgot your P.E. kit and had to go into the sweaty 'spares' cupboard and borrow a pair of trainers five sizes too big. Shudder.
*http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/tennis/article4132267.ece
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.