It just isn’t tennis unless the whites are bright and the rules are observed

Poor Alize Cornet has found herself at the centre of a tennis storm. An umpire’s decision to penalise the French star at the US Open for briefly removing her shirt to put it on the right way round, momentarily revealing her sturdy sports bra, triggered predictable outrage at the top of the sport.

Although Cornet’s code violation has now been rescinded, luminaries from Judy Murray to Annabel Croft called it out as an example of doublestandards. While female dress codes are constantly under the spotlight, male players such as Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have carte blanche to change their shirts on court. Some even joke that the stars of the men’s game deliberately disrobe mid-match to provoke the chorus of female gasps that tend to accompany their topless “Poldark” moments. By contrast, they say, the women are victimised for minor infringements.

Take the French Open’s new “wardrobe rules”, apparently designed to ban the controversial “black panther” suit Serena Williams wore at this year’s tournament. Little has changed since the tabloid sensation created by Anne White’s attention-grabbing white catsuit – complete with leg-warmers – which she controversially wore for her Wimbledon first round match in 1985.

Few would disagree that the men and women should be treated equally. But should this be a prompt for tennis to relax its famously restrictive rules more generally? Of course not.

Tennis began as a genteel game played before afternoon tea on latevictorian vicarage lawns, and came roaring into the 21st century as an international super-sport, in a blaze of publicity, eyewatering levels of prizemoney and larger-than-life characters. What makes it so iconic, though – and sets it apart from its brasher rivals like football – is its traditionalism and reserve, and the multiplicity of quirky regulations that still operate at all the major tournaments and many local tennis clubs.

The All England Club, home of Wimbledon, is acknowledged as the custodian of the game’s old-fashioned virtues. It goes to enormous trouble to retain the exquisite atmosphere that captivates every visitor, including, famously, the rule that all players in the court area must wear white – not off-white, and certainly not cream, with any trim of colour no more than a centimetre wide. Quite right, too: my only complaint is that today’s players no longer whiten their pumps after matches to retain their pristine state.

These rules are a central part of the game’s charm, and a way of bringing the galactic egos of the sport’s greatest players back down to Earth.

Those who fall foul of the seemingly pettifogging rules secretly relish the smack of firm discipline. This year, for example, one of my guests in the Members’ enclosure at the Championships arrived immaculately garbed in blazer and tie on a sweltering day, but without socks – an absolute no-no according to the club’s dress code. The eagle-eyed gentlemen who police the draconian regulations instantly spotted the quarter inch of bare ankle, scarcely visible between my guest’s impeccable chinos and shiny shoes and firmly but courteously turned him away. Luckily, he had brought a pair “just in case”, donned them in the car and then dined out on his HM Bateman-style fashion-fail: “The Man who came to Wimbledon With No Socks”.