New smalls please: player ordered to change his blue pants

A JUNIOR player at Wimbledon had to change his underpants to the regulation white after being told by an umpire he could not wear his blue pair.

All England Club officials judged that the underwear worn by Jurij Rodionov, 18, was visible beneath his shorts, in contravention of the club’s all-white rule. A match supervisor was called to bring a pair of white underpants to Court 18 before the match was allowed to proceed.

Rodionov said the problem had never happened to him before. “Yesterday, for example, I wore black pants and nobody said anything and today I wore blue and suddenly it’s a problem.” He went on to beat Australian junior Blake Ellis 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

“I just focused on my game,” said Rodionov. “I got two pairs. One was a little bit too big but these ones were OK.”

He added: “It’s Wimbledon. Wimbledon is always special,” he said. “I mean, maybe it depends. It’s a little bit too much but I like that the players only have to wear white. It’s tradition.”

Wimbledon updated its dress code policy in 2014, with the all-white rule becoming more strict. Women’s finalist Venus Williams fell foul of the rule last week, having to change her bright pink bra during a break in her match against Elise Mertens.