Out! Wimbledon to Ban Tennis Teases

The Sunday Times - Britain ^ | 6/25/06 | Maurice Chittenden

[beyond the sea]

WIMBLEDON has served an early warning to the world’s tennis stars: step across the line on the tournament’s strict dress code and you will be sent packing.

For more than a century Wimbledon has fiercely guarded the genteel reputation that today sets it apart from other tournaments. Officials there want spectators to keep their eye on the ball, not on the increasingly revealing outfits that have caused controversy elsewhere.

The guide for competitors this year has been updated to warn them that they risk being defaulted — the tennis equivalent of a red card — if they break the tournament’s code of almost entirely white and most certainly decent clothing.

The pirate shorts favoured by the new pin-up Rafael Nadal, the Spanish winner of the French Open, will not raise an eyebrow provided they are white. Neither will the bare midriffs of players such as Tatiana Golovin, the Russian-born teenager based in France who has been known to take a pair of scissors to her outfits to make them even more revealing.

But the low-cut tops showing lots of cleavage, favoured by Maria Sharapova and Maria Kirilenko, are likely to be banned, as are loose- fitting outfits such as the one Sharapova wore at this year’s Australian Open which billowed up to reveal her underwear.

The 2006 Wimbledon players’ guide carries the new caution: “Any competitor who appears on court dressed in a manner which is deemed unsuitable by the committee will be liable to be defaulted.”

[beyond the sea]

ping .............. to this one of Maria Sharapova.

[quesera]

Bad Bad Bad!

Either my brain shifted or that was a bad link or both.

[quesera]

Much better, thanks!

[beyond the sea]

I agree with the white, definately.

[beyond the sea]

Try # 33!

[maggief]

LOL

[quesera]

I did, best one of all and a keeper.

[Mr. Blonde]

And ESPN is think for every inch of clothing you add we are subtracting from the coverage.

[freedumb2003]

Iam beginning to see what they are talking about.

No way will they crack in their resolve to preserve decorum! No matter how cheeky the players get! And I don't even think they will get away with it once in a blue moon.

[Sally'sConcerns]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I startled the dog I laughed so loudly.

[nonliberal]

Martina Hingis. Yummy.

[SkyPilot]

Billie Jean says.....

"You male chauvinists make me absolutely sick! Ahem....err..got any more of that Sharpapova dish?"

[Echo Talon]

I started liking womens tennis as soon as I saw Martina Hingis. :)

[beyond the sea]

Who is Mac tryin' to kid?

LOL!

[beyond the sea]

ROFL!

"Billie Jean is HOT" ............ Bobby Riggs

[beyond the sea]

Yeh, she's a cutie.

[processing please hold]

Ooops, sorry fellows. Looks like I open the wrong door. This room looks like a male thread. Pardon me again.(I back out the door quietly, and gently close it behind me)

[lesser_satan]

Sharapova should be allowed (or even encouraged) to play naked, IMHO.

[bannie]

HAHA! It's a good thing women, as a whole, aren't visual!!!

[Dick Vomer]