Billie Jean King’s ‘pet peeve’ is Wimbledon’s ‘horrible’ all white uniform policy
(CNN) — “I can understand if you like the white pants and white shoes,” Serena Williams has said when she was asked what her biggest pet peeve was about Wimbledon.
It’s something Williams has told millions of Americans about the U.S. Open for the past 20 years.
But what could be the all-but-guaranteed worst thing about having to wear all white when you compete on the grass courts of the world’s most renowned tennis tournament is Wimbledon’s all-white uniform policy — just like she feels it’s her worst pet peeve.
“I like the white shoes. I really like the white shoes. I also like the white pants and the shorts and everything white because that always looks good,” Williams told reporters last June in Montreal for the Davis Cup. “I’m not trying to be pretentious or anything, but that’s definitely the most glaring aspect of the white uniform, which is that if you’ve got white on your shirt, you’ve got white on your shorts, you’ve got white on your shoes and you’re not going to wear white to tournaments.”
This is the rule at Williams’ tournament which means she must either wear shorts or no shorts in warm-up and cool-down sessions. And she’s right in this case: If she wore shorts she could, of course, wear her favorite white shoes.
The rules are in place because of health and safety concerns, but Williams told reporters, “They’ve got every color in the world for shorts. I mean, you could wear some white in the tournament. It wouldn’t be, like, as conspicuous. But you’d still have the health and safety concerns, and you’d definitely be on the sidelines for longer than you’d like.”
It’s not like Wimbledon is so far off from major professional tennis tournaments that it’s the only reason a top player was so concerned about this issue