Dylan Bettencourt
Wimbledon is set to relax their all-white dress code rule to allow players to show support for Ukraine.
Women’s world number one and Wimbledon favourite, Iga Swiatek, wore a blue and yellow ribbon on her cap to show solidarity with the conflict-torn nation.
Ukrainian player Lesia Tsurenko said on Monday she was planning to wear something to show solidarity for her opening match on Wednesday.
“Can we wear the ribbon at the match?” she asked.
“I don’t know with the Wimbledon rules if we can wear the ribbon.”
For decades the tournament has had strict rules regarding dress code which states “competitors must be dressed in suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white and this applies from the point at which the player enters the court surround. White does not include off-white or cream.”
However, the organisers are set to make an exception this time round.
Ukrainian player Anhelina Kalinina said that her family home had huge holes in it after being bombed by Russian forces.
“But they live like many other Ukrainians. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow because sometimes everything looks quiet. But then yesterday there were two rockets in the centre of Kyiv,” she said.
Tsurenko said she felt relieved coming into the tournament, the third Grand Slam of the year, knowing there would be no Russian or Belarusian players present.
“I feel good being at the tournament without having to see players from those countries again. In most of the cases it’s nothing personal,” she said.
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