Officials at the Us Open have been branded sexist after handing player Alize Cornet a code violation for turning her top the right way around on the court
The French player, who was facing Swedish star Johanna Larsson in New York, was heading back to the court after a short ‘heat break’ due to sweltering temperatures, when she appeared to notice that her top was on back-to-front. Turning away from cameras, Cornet pulled the shirt up and moved it around the correct way.
In the 10 seconds or so this took, her black sports bra was briefly revealed from behind – hardly racy, right? But chair umpire Christian Rask slapped Cornet with a code violation after branding the incident – if you can even call it that – ‘inappropriate‘. Bloody hell, mate, have a day off.
According to World Tennis Association rules, female players can’t change their clothing while on the court – however males can, which has led to people flocking to social media to slam the ‘ridiculous‘ and ‘sexist’ rules.
Amongst those angered by the violation were tennis coach (and Andy’s mum) Judy Murray as well as former player Casey Dellacqua.
Others were quick to point out the unfair gender split, with one person posting: “Busted for code violation Alize Cornet took 10 sec to turn top right way but Novac Djokovic can sit for minutes half-naked. Same comp.”
A second added: “So, hold on… Novak can take his shirt off because of extreme heat and that’s OK. But Alize Cornet takes a minute to turn her shirt around (with a bra on, by the way), and we’re all losing our minds? Right.”
The competition has been hit with scorching temperatures this week, leading to a heat break policy being used for the heat and safety of competitors.
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