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This year’s Wimbledon marks a small yet significant turning point for female tennis players.
Last year, Wimbledon announced it would relax its strict all-white dress code for female players in order to ease period anxiety.
The decision came after protests by campaigners calling on the organisation to ‘address the dress code’, which has caused issues for many female players in the past.
Under the new rules, women are allowed to wear dark undershorts, though all players still need to wear all-white clothes on top.
So far, former champion Victoria Azarenka took to the court in dark green shorts, along with Linda Fruhvirtova.
Elena Rybakina, Shelby Rogers, Aryna Sabalenka and Panna Udvardy all opted to wear dark undershorts, too.
Speaking about the rule change, Victoria Azarenka said that she appreciates the rule change for women athletes.
‘I think that was an important step,’ she said. ‘I think that’s very thoughtful.’
Tennis players have previously spoken out about the stress associated with their menstrual cycle.
British tennis player Heather Watson once cited her period as a reason for her loss at the Australian Open, adding that she was in a constant state of fear that she’d be photographed leaking through her clothes.
‘[The period issue] is absolutely something the players talk about around Wimbledon because of the all-whites,’ she told BBC Sport last year.
‘I think people speak about it a lot – maybe not to the media but among ourselves, for sure.’
Rennae Stubbs, who has played at Wimbledon three times in her career, told the Telegraph last year: ‘At Wimbledon, you’re very cognizant of making sure that everything’s ‘good to go’ the moment you walk on the court – making sure that you have a tampon.
‘A lot of women have pads on top of that, or making sure that you have an extra-large tampon before you go on the court.’
The former Russian-born French player Tatiana Golovin, who once made headlines for wearing red undershorts at Wimbledon in 2007, also spoke to the Telegraph about the issue.
‘For an athlete, it’s very tricky to wear white because you have the photographers, you have pictures everywhere, you’re sliding on the court, you’re falling, you’re playing, your skirt’s flying up,’ she said.
‘I’ve always thought that it’s better to wear something darker, just to feel more comfortable.’
Last year, former Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig responded to a tweet about the issue saying: ‘Definitely something that affects female athletes! Finally bringing it to everyone’s attention!
‘Not to mention the mental stress of having to wear all white at Wimbledon and praying not to have your period during those two weeks.’
Tennis isn’t the only sport making changes to women’s kits.
For this year’s World Cup ,the England team switched their shorts to dark blue for the same reason. Last year, Beth Mead said the all-white kit was sometimes impractical.
‘Hopefully they’re going to change that [the colour],’ she said at the time.
‘It’s very nice to have an all-white kit but sometimes it’s not practical when it’s the time of the month.
‘We deal with it as best we can.’
Commenting on the change, England defender Lucy Parker said: “Anything that relieves the mental stress of the players is a good thing.
‘If it’s one less thing to worry about, then why not?’
Why not, indeed.
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