Nike has reportedly recalled the company’s signature white dress given to its sponsored female tennis players at Wimbledon after numerous wardrobe malfunctions.
The New York Times pointed out that tennis players like Rebecca Peterson played with a long-sleeved shirt over her dress while another competitor, Katie Boulter, reportedly tied one of her headbands around her waist to keep the dress in place. Another player, Katie Swan, tucked the dress into her shorts.
“When I was serving, it was coming up, and I felt like the dress was just everywhere,” Peterson told the Times. “In general, it’s quite simple, the dress, but it was flying everywhere.”
The Daily Mail obtained an email marked “VERY important” that Nike sent to its female tennis players asking them to bring in their dresses “to make a small change.” According to the Times, “the slits on each side were sewn up by a Nike tailor, making the light fabric of the dress somewhat steadier and less prone to flying up as far during play.” Nike, though, claimed that “the product has not been recalled and we often customize products and make alterations for athletes as they compete.”
Nike reportedly “also offered its players the option of wearing a more traditional skirt and top combination” and tennis players like Daria Kaskatina, Roberta Vinci and 2013 champion Sabini Lisiki reportedly switched. Lucie Safarova still looked uncomfortable in the dress en route to her straight-set victory over America’s Samantha Crawford on Thursday.
Ana Konjuh, who was wearing the dress in question on Thursday, kept tugging at it during her match against Aga “Ninja” Radwanska in which she gave the third seed all she could handle on Thursday. Konjuh, with her booming groundstrokes, was on her way to upsetting Radwanska until she slipped on the grass and suffered an ankle injury in the third and deciding set. She ultimately squandered three match points and Radwanska, who was on the ropes, ended up defeating the gimpy Konjuh 9-7 in a 16-game third set (no deciding set tiebreaks at Wimbledon).
Greece’s Maria Sakkari told the Times that she thought “it’s a very pretty dress, and I think that it’s very feminine.” She added that, “it’s very comfortable.” Sakkari, a qualifier, also gave Venus Williams all she could handle on Thursday, eventually losing 6-3 in the third set to the five-time Wimbledon champion.
Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard (pictured) has been the most vocal supporter of the dress, even praising the dress on her social media accounts.
“For me, I love it,” Bouchard reportedly told TSN. “It’s nice and short so you can move around and be free with your movements. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s funny that people paid a lot of attention to it, but I really think it’s really nice.”
Bouchard, playing like she did when she took the tennis world by storm in 2014 when she was a Wimbledon finalist, defeated Johanna Konta in three sets on Thursday. Bouchard, who has struggled with her serve and closing out matches, got her first top-20 win in nearly two years.
The @Nikecourt London Collection 🔥 https://t.co/W14m8oaSiG #stealtheshow #perfectlength pic.twitter.com/GV8Vzs3RCD
— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) June 25, 2016
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