The tennis player spit on the traditions of Wimbledon. But by cunning escaped punishment

The organizers of Wimbledon are fighting for their identity with incredible tenacity, each time tightening the rules.

Any appearance of tennis players on and off the court is regulated and, it would seem, there can be no exceptions. However, the young, but already well-known on the world tour, Yannick Sinner, went against tradition.

His appearance in the first round match went down in history, but the Italian fashionista was not even punished.

Strict dress code

The most prestigious grass tournament in the world has always had a strict dress code:

– Participants must wear appropriate tennis attire, which is almost all white, and this applies from the moment a player enters the area surrounding the court, the official Wimbledon rules state.

This also applies to equipment: “medical supplies and equipment should be, if possible, white, but if absolutely necessary, they can be painted in other colors.” These nuances are closely monitored, so that for almost a century and a half one can recall enough cases when tennis players were fined for not following these rules.

For example, last year, the notorious Australian Nick Kyrgios, after losing the final to Novak Djokovic, wore a red cap during the award ceremony and received a punishment of almost $ 10,000 for this, as he himself admitted in one of the tennis podcasts.

Nick Kiryos / Photo: © Simon M Bruty / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

– Personalities in tennis are a bit non-standard. I feel like I’m not doing something crazy, the Australian complained then.

Workaround

The modest Italian Yannick Sinner is difficult to compare with Kiryos in temperament, however, the 21-year-old tennis player managed to excel at Wimbledon, which started this week. In the first round match against the Argentinean Cherundolo, the eighth racket of the world entered the court with two bags.

One of them fully complied with the rules of the tournament, while the other was made in brown with red and green straps of the premium Italian brand Gucci. According to the New York Times, this is the first time in 146 years that a player has taken a luxury bag onto the court.

– Indeed, this is a significant moment. For the first time, a high-class luxury accessory was brought to the court. The perfect bag is big enough to hold all the things I need on the court, yet easy to carry around,” Sinner said proudly.

Yannick Sinner / Photo: © Clive Brunskill / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Interestingly, the organizers of the tournament did not come up with any punishment for Yannick. It turned out that even among such strict rules one can find workarounds. The Italian simply applied in advance for approval of the bag by the International Tennis Federation, ATP and Wimbledon, as it was designed by the fashion house especially for him.

In addition to the exceptions for the Italian, this year the organizers allowed the athletes to wear dark underwear for the first time. Tennis players fought for this right for a long time, but only in 2023 did they make concessions. Apparently, Wimbledon is increasingly difficult to fight to preserve their traditions.