French tennis player Alize Cornet recently readjusted her shirt on the side of the court, during her US Open match, because she wore it back to front.
Seems harmless and inconsequential, right? Well, she was handed a code violation by the umpire for ‘breaking a rule’.
Here’s a picture of Novak Djokovic, without his shirt during the match break. He wasn’t handed a code violation.
But what about the rules?
While it’s completely okay for men to take off their shirts because of the heat, the same rules don’t apply to the female athletes.
WHY?
Weird how I still look for logic after Serena William’s catsuit ban by French Open officials.
While banning the costume, the officials had said, “one must respect the game and the place”.
If a fully-covered costume, worn for health-related purposes, can be a threat to the ‘respect of the game’ according to some people, it really doesn’t surprise me that they flipped on seeing a girl taking off her shirt mid-match.
As per a report by ABC, the 2018 WTA rule guide states that female athletes must change clothes off-court in the ‘most private location’.
Gotta love the choice of words, here. Not just ‘private’ but ‘most private’ location. What is this ‘most private location’? Should they go home between sets to change clothes?
Seeing the issue going out of hand, US Open soon issued an apology, which read:
We regret that a code violation was assessed to Ms Cornet yesterday. We have clarified the policy to ensure this will not happen moving forward. Fortunately, she was only assessed a warning with no further penalty or fine.
Oh, thank you US Open for ‘only assessed a warning’. Really helps.
Anyhow, Cornet accepted the apology, but not before criticising the French Tennis Federation president for banning Williams’ catsuit.
Gender-related double standards are not new but it’s disturbing how people are stooping lower with passing time.