
The history behind Wimbledon's all-white rule for tennis player's kits
The white clothing rule, enforced since the 19th century, originated to conceal sweat and provide coolness in summer heat.
Over time, the dress code became a symbol of Wimbledon's unique history and tradition, despite occasional controversies and revisions.
In 2023, the All England Club updated its rules to permit dark undershorts for women players, addressing concerns related to menstruation.
Past clothing controversies at Wimbledon include incidents involving Gertrude Moran, Venus Williams, and Roger Federer, highlighting the strict adherence to the white kit policy.
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The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Emma Raducanu confronts top-five struggles before Sabalenka showdown
Hours after Emma Raducanu's latest convincing defeat to Iga Swiatek just a few weeks ago at Roland Garros, the 22-year-old was understandably still seething. Once again, she had given herself an opportunity to face one of the best players in the world, and once again she simply could not keep up. Her uncomfortable afternoon on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the end of May was reflective of a pattern that has defined her recent months on court. Raducanu has performed admirably when facing the players she should defeat, compiling a 14-3 record against lower-ranked players over the past year. Against the elite players, however, she has consistently been flattened. 'I think I have done a pretty good job of staying with and getting some good wins over players not in the top 10,' she said, sighing. 'But there is a big difference as you go up into the top five and then playing, like, slam champions. It is a completely different ball game.' There have been times when those top players have almost appeared to be playing a different sport. Raducanu's 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Swiatek at Roland Garros had actually marked an improvement following her 6-1, 6-0 loss in their Australian Open third-round match. She has also suffered convincing defeats to Coco Gauff and Zheng Qinwen in recent weeks and she is 1-9 against top-five players in her career. The common theme in those performances was how underpowered Raducanu's game appeared against players who are capable of completely overwhelming her with their superior pace and weight of shot. Now she will take on the very best, and most powerful, adversary of all in Aryna Sabalenka, the undisputed women's world No 1. Over the past few years, Sabalenka's evolution has become one of the most impressive sights in the sport. After arriving on the tour as a wildly inconsistent shotmaker who entered every match with the sole intention of bashing the ball as hard as possible while having no control over her emotions, the 27-year-old has evolved into a more refined, well-rounded player who has learned how to harness her power into consistently devastating tennis. Although Sabalenka's defeat to Gauff in the French Open final last month showed her that her emotional development is not complete, the nerves she has sometimes exhibited in some of her biggest matches have been completely absent in the early rounds of grand slams. She has now reached the semi-finals or better in nine of her past 10 such tournaments. Her worst result during this period was a quarter-final finish at Roland Garros in 2024, which also came while she was suffering from food poisoning. Of all the places in the world that Raducanu would like to test her abilities against Sabalenka, however, Centre Court at Wimbledon is number one. She of course gains a sentimental boost from those surroundings, with the occasion on home soil in front of a British crowd consistently inspiring some of her best tennis. This surface, however, also just snugly fits with her game, low-bouncing grass courts also imbuing her serve and groundstrokes with more pace. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion In recent months, Raducanu has taken significant strides forward as she has tried to develop her game. Having spent the first months of the season struggling with her serve, she and her coach Mark Petchey opted to change her service motion to a more elongated swing, and it has trended upwards ever since. While her two-handed backhand has long been her best and most natural, they have worked on making her game more forehand-dominant in line with her intentions of being a more attack-minded player. Those enhancements were all on show during Raducanu's stellar win over the 2023 champion, Marketa Vondrousova, on Wednesday, one of her best matches of the season. Now she will look to see exactly what she is capable of on her court and her surface across the net from the No 1 in the world.


The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
No ‘miracle pills' required as flawless Novak Djokovic lays down Wimbledon title marker
Sometimes Novak Djokovic doesn't need a miracle to win at Wimbledon. There's enough inspiration, divine or otherwise, from his racket to easily swat away those who have the misfortune to cross his path. That was the situation Dan Evans found himself in on Centre Court as he watched the winners, all 46 of them, fly past him. Fresh off a confidence-boosting straight-sets win over fellow Brit Jay Clarke in round one, Evans simply couldn't compete in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 defeat that took just one hour and 47 minutes. Forty-eight hours after Djokovic's four-set victory over Alexandre Muller that was harder than he would have liked it to be, even requiring some 'miracle pills' to get through a stomach issue, this was exactly what the doctor ordered – no tablets required. If the 38-year-old's body is more fragile and unreliable than it used to be, then saving as many bullets as possible for the potential Draper, Sinner and Alcaraz-shaped tests to come is a useful strategy in the quest for that record-breaking 25th grand slam. What's also a useful strategy is playing almost flawless tennis. He gave the impression of a man easily shifting through the gears for the challenges ahead, with consistently sublime shot-making while exuding calm control. 'I knew exactly what I needed to do and I executed it perfectly,' admitted a quietly content Djokovic in his post-match interview. 'Sometimes you have these kinds of days where everything goes your way.' Evans meanwhile – roared on by a raucous crowd on Centre, desperate for further British success – fought valiantly enough, especially early on as he denied Djokovic on break point after break point in the first set, but the gulf in class was ultimately too great to overcome. His unbeaten record against the Serbian star (thanks to winning their lone previous meeting, an unlikely clay-court triumph at the 2021 Monte Carlo Masters…) predictably meant little and he'll now go back to grinding away on the Challenger Tour in pursuit of a US Open spot as his opponent prepares for a third-round tussle with countryman Miomir Kecmanovic and dreams of tennis history. The semi-regular approving taps of the racket from Djokovic when an Evans shot was just too good for him didn't appear to be a deliberate psychological ploy, and couldn't quite be called patronising, but it's likely they would have become a shade more infrequent had the 35-year-old Brit been able to really push the all-time great close. Instead, he battled and showed plenty of glimpses of the quality that took him to a career-high 21 in the world just two summers ago – certainly enough to suggest that a rise from his current position languishing outside the world's top 150 is imminent – but ultimately to little avail. If Evans wanted to make an early statement that he could hang with the seven-time champion, a Djokovic hold to love to kick things off was hardly ideal. But he at least earned the smallest of bragging rights by banging down back-to-back clean aces to begin his first service game after his Serbian foe had merely followed an opening ace with an unreturned serve. Knowing he would be outgunned in ferocity of groundstroke, the Brit tried to make life difficult with clever changes of pace, resorting especially to his patented sliced backhand, well-placed serves and frequent darts to the net. Four break points were saved in the fourth game of the match for a gutsy hold before Evans dug himself out of a 0-40 hole next time around to again stave off the Djokovic swarm for a few more minutes. But the elastic eventually snapped at 4-3. A 15-40 fightback was rendered moot when Djokovic, at the 10th time of asking, finally converted a break point as a forehand drifted long. The subsequent hold was routine and in roughly three-quarters of an hours, a 6-3 first-set triumph was secured. The next two sets combined only took a little longer than that. The fact the 24-time grand slam winner had lost just three points on serve, and in fact only needed to resort to a second serve on three occasions throughout the entire first set, told the story of the dominance. He kicked on from there. An early break was secured in the third game of the second set, another added when the man from Birmingham next served and a 6-2 win was wrapped up before the match time reached an hour and 20 minutes. Incredibly, his serve was getting better – 100 per cent of first serves that landed in the box during the second set ended with Djokovic winning the point, while he lost just two of five second serves. And the third set turned into a rout as Evans wilted, unable to stop the relentless onslaught, failing to win a single game as his opponent positively sprinted through the finish line. This was vintage Novak. A 99th win on the Wimbledon grass and a promise that it might just take divine intervention to stop him making history at the All England Club this year.


Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Jack Draper vs Marin Cilic: Score and latest Wimbledon updates
Hello and welcome to coverage from Wimbledon as Jack Draper resumes his campaign against Marin Cilic. The British No 1 has once again been scheduled on Court No 1 over Centre Court but if he plays like he did on Tuesday, he should have too much for Cilic. The fourth seed breezed into the second round of Wimbledon, dropping just five games in little over an hour before Sebastian Baez withdrew injured early in the third set. The Argentinian had slipped in the opening game of the second set but Draper was utterly in control from the first point of the contest. Wimbledon has so far been Draper's least successful grand slam but that is something he is determined to change. 'I think grass in general is a surface I'm still trying to find my best level on,' he said. 'On the hard courts at US Open, even on the clay this year, I think I found my best level for what I can play right now. I feel like I haven't yet found that on the grass. 'I feel like it's coming, so I'm looking forward to that, that moment when it all sort of comes together and I can really show my best level. 'I think I've still got so much to unlock on the grass. I think that's really exciting for me. I love Wimbledon. I think if there's any tournament I want to play my best in, any tournament that I want to win, it's this one. 'I'm going to do everything in my power and everything in my control to get to that point.' Draper admits he was stung by a second-round loss to compatriot Cameron Norrie last year. 'It did get to me, the pressure I was putting on myself,' said the 23-year-old. 'I definitely look back a year on and I feel a lot calmer in myself. This year I feel more confident in my ability and my ability not only to play but to problem solve, to know how to play in five sets.'