OLYMPICS /
Newsmaker
Why tennis girl stripped off
China Daily/The Olympian
Updated: 2008-08-14 11:00
It wasn't a protest, and there was an underlayer to maintain a sense of decorum, when Australia's Casey Dellacqua found herself unable to leave the tennis court to change a dripping shirt in her match against Victoria Azarenka, says the International Tennis Federation live text commentary.
She says she asked the umpire, Ali Katebi, if she could go off court to change, but he said it was not allowed. She then asked him if she could just go behind a fence, but he refused again.
So she changed it on court. Back in the 1980s, the American player Barbara Potter insisted on changing her shirt on court at Wimbledon, so whenever she wanted to do so, she had to notify the ball kids, who formed a group of four to hold up towels so the public didn't see the shirtless lady.
Casey Dellacqua of Australia hits a return against Gisela Dulko of Argentina during their first round tennis match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 11, 2008. [Agencies] |