Here’s one more tennis story for you. At the U.S. Open, Alize Cornet was about to resume her match in the 3rd set and looked down to realize that her shirt was on backwards. She turned away from the cameras and discretely took off her shirt to put it on correctly. The chair umpire issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. Because this was her first violation of the match, her penalty was a warning, not a point or a game. The changing of the shirt took about 10 seconds. She had a sports bra on so her breasts were not exposed. Cornet argued the violation, but was told by the umpire that women cannot change their shirts in view of the public. To be clear, the U.S. Open issued an apology within 24 hours, “All players can change their shirt while sitting in the player chair. This is not a code violation. We regret that a code violation was issued to Ms. Cornet yesterday. We have clarified the policy to ensure this will not happen again.”
Joe’s Perspective: When you watch women’s beach volleyball, these women are wearing bikinis. These athletes are consistently wearing much less clothing than Cornet was for 10 seconds. Clearly, this is not a big deal. The men are allowed to take off their shirts and/or change them at various breaks during a match. They sit for several minutes without a shirt to cool down. Women, generally speaking, leave the court to change shirts. This is actually what Cornet did, but she put her shirt on backwards. Not wanting to waste time, she took a few seconds to remedy the situation. Most reasonable people feel this should not have warranted a code violation. It’s easy to see that this is a sexist rule and a double standard. It also seems fair that a woman should be able to stay on the court to change shirts, specifically in extreme heat situations like they had at this year’s U.S. Open. My only question is what happens if a women’s sports bra is soaked in sweat and she also changes that court side. It will be interesting to see if tennis remains consistent on this new policy or if that becomes a code violation.
Your Turn: As always, please keep your comments clean and mature. Do you think Ms. Cornet should have received a code violation for taking off her shirt? Do you agree with the new policy?
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I agree with most of what you say. I believe the warning was given because she did not change her shirt while sitting at the players chair. I don’t necessarily believe it’s a sexist rule. Where she did it was the issue, not that she did it. The picture you show of Djokovic has him sitting in his chair cooling off with an ice pack because of the conditions you spoke about at this year’s US Open. Again, it’s location of where it happened and not the action taken.
No, because like was said there are some sports where they wear less clothing so whats wrong with her trying to fix her shirt. Kind of, i understand why but at the same time if its bothering her it can affect the way she plays
No I do not think she should have gotten a code violation ebacause men are allowed to so why shouldn’t they allowed to do it.
No, i don’t think she should have revived a code violation because she didn’t try and draw attention. Now they can both be able to do it.
I don’t think she should have received a violation. it’s kind of back to the whole sexist thing. But long story short, if the guys could take his shirt off in frustration, then why wouldn’t the girl be able too?
i don’t think it was that big of a deal, she was just taking off her shirt. i do not believe she should have gotten a violation.