Tennis Officials Blasted for Penalizing Player Who Briefly Removed Shirt

After the French Tennis Federation president drew criticism last week for being critical of the black catsuit Serena Williams wore during the French Open, which was designed to help prevent the blood clots she's suffered from, tennis officials are again getting blasted over female players' clothing after France's Alize Cornet was given a code violation penalty for briefly taking her shirt off during a match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday (August 28th). Cornet had come back on the court after she and opponent Johanna Larsson had taken a mandatory break because of the oppressive heat when she realized her shirt was on backward. So she quickly took the shirt off to turn in around and put it on properly, briefly revealing her black sports bra. After that happened the umpire gave her a penalty. Critics pointed out that male players had taken off their shirts too without a penalty, with one person tweeting, "Alize Cornet took 10 seconds to turn top right way, but Novak Djokovic can sit for minutes half-naked." The U.S. Open released a statement in reaction to the backlash on Wednesday, saying, All players can change their shirts when sitting in the player chair. . . . We regret that the code violation was assessed to Ms. Cornet yesterday. We have clarified the policy to ensure this will not happen moving forward."


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