Seeing red over white

LONDON — An American tennis player has re-ignited the row over Wimbledon’s strict all-white uniform rule, branding it ridiculous and excessive.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands joked that enforcement of the rule was so over the top that players could get penalised if they washed their kit too many times and it went off-white.

The tattooed 30-year-old, who is known for her flamboyant style and often sports coloured hair, beat seventh seed Ana Ivanovic, who is ranked 151 places above her, yesterday to reach the third round where she will face Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.

When asked about the club’s uniform rule, Mattek-Sands said it has become “a little excessive”.

“I actually packed in my bag some of the skirts with the coloured underwear and obviously that’s a no‑go this year. I’m upset about that,” she said. “I think the sweatbands and headbands you could wear the colours before, I thought that looked cool.

“It’s a little much when, you know, Ivo Karlovic had to paint a little bit of his shoe white. That’s a little much.”

When told that Roger Federer, a seven-time champion at Wimbledon, had deemed the strict rule ridiculous, Mattek-Sands agreed and that it has just gone too far.

“I think for the most part everybody that has come here has been pretty much all white, I mean, more than 95 per cent,” she added.

“And they are still kind of picking at people for a certain stripe. I think Nike had a yellow band around the sports bra underneath the shirt that wasn’t allowed. I don’t know, I think that’s a little much.”

On Wednesday, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, a finalist last year, narrowly avoided a code violation after a glimpse of her black bra was spotted under her white top.

When the chair umpire spotted it, she voiced concern with the referees on her walkie talkie. But it was decided that the offending garment should not lead to a violation as it was not overtly visible. Instead, the referees were told to pay particular attention to the player’s uniform in her next game should she have reached the second round.

The all-white rule, which means that coloured undergarments are banned from the courts, was tightened after some players tried to sneak a coloured trim on to court, often at the behest of sponsors.

It was claimed that some women had been forced to play without a bra after the All England club even prohibited “off-white or cream” clothing, only allowing a coloured trim no more than 1cm wide.

The rule covers not just kit, but tracksuits and sweaters, both for practice and for matches. Even medical supports and equipment must be white. Pat Cash last year suggested that the rule had “absolutely gone ridiculous.”

He had been due to play in the master’s competition but pulled out in protest after his own training shoes fell foul of the regulations. He said that last time he played without the specially adapted shoes, he suffered an injury.

Former women’s world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki also said she thought checks to see if players were wearing white knickers would be “creepy”.

XXX LATEST SELECTED RESULTS FROM DAY FOUR OF WIMBLEDON TO COME XXX