The way they’ve been acting at Wimbledon you’d have thought somebody walked on court in a latex catsuit.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club has dealt with numerous seemingly self-inflicted wardrobe controversies in recent years. Back in the dim and distant years of the mid-80s, Anne White committed what many consider the first real fashion faux pas at the Grand Daddy tennis match. Yes, she wore the required white, but Anne dressed in a white one-piece, Lycra body suit. Also in the 80s, a man committed a fashion no-no with his accessory; Pat Cash won the tournament beating Ivan Lendl in the final…wearing a black and white checkered bandana! Fast forward to the aughts, Maria Sharapova’s top was of a tuxedo design, five years later Serena Williams wore a skin-tight black catsuit (although not latex).
And as the debate between over seemingly staid UK tennis tradition and modern femininity (as is the case, mostly it is the female players who seem to court the most controversy with how they want to dress) Latvian player Jelena Ostapenko drew controversy to what she wore under her skirt this Friday past. It was during the warming up of her doubles match that audiences were treated to a umpire seeming to coax Ostapenko to pull her skirt up slightly (her white skirt) to reveal the green shorts she was wearing underneath.
It’s interesting to note that two years ago the All England Lawn Tennis Club altered its rules allowing female players to wear darker shorts to amp down possible menstruation anxiety, so Ostapenko’s green shorts were in compliance. The interplay between her and the official did not last long, but nobody has yet weighed in with what it was about.
Although Wimbledon introduced a new dress code for female players in 2021 answering criticism of how they need to modernize to promote comfort and answer staid gender equality criticisms in their staid sports attire, this seems like yet another wardrive controversy the club is courting.
