"This weird backward rule should have never existed in the first place" - Tennis fans react to Wimbledon relaxing all-white policy for women players

Wimbledon announced a relaxation in its all-white clothing policy for women players on Thursday. The All England Club's chief executive Sally Bolton said that the body was "committed" to supporting the players, many of whom have flagged the compulsion of wearing white undershorts as being a source of "anxiety" while menstruating.

With the change now coming into effect, tennis fans took to social media to share their surprise at the seemingly primitive rule having held up for so many years.

Several social media users went on to criticize the All England Club for advertising the rule change as progressive, saying that the mandate should ideally have not existed in the first place.

"There's also the weird vibe of like "hey look at us we're doing something great".... Even though this weird backwards rule should have never existed in the first place," a Reditt user pointed out.

"A common sense move and hopefully the start of moving away from Wimbledon's strict dress-code," another user wrote on Reditt.

Some fans, meanwhile, were more forgiving of the white outfits at Wimbledon but pointed out how the All England Club's mandate on undershorts for female players was "disturbing".

"I mean, white outer garments is just a nice tradition to have, forcing what underwear players can have was bonkers to begin with," a Reddit user wrote.

"It’s cool to have mostly white outfits but disturbing that they didn’t think of the need for dark undershorts the whole time," read another comment.

Twitter users were just as surprised at the All England Club's failure to change the rules over the past several years despite the clamor from the players' community around the time of the tournament.

"Kudos… you’re just like 80 years late on this but better late than never I guess," a Twitter user wrote.

"It is our hope that this rule adjustment will help players focus purely on their performance" - Sally Bolton on Wimbledon all-white clothing rule change

All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton at the Wimbledon Championships 2022.

Bolton, speaking about the rule change, said she hoped the efforts would help rid female players of any potential source of anxiety while competing at Wimbledon.

"It is our hope that this rule adjustment will help players focus purely on their performance by relieving a potential source of anxiety," she said.

Notably, former British No. 1 Heather Watson told the BBC in June this year that the all-white mandate was "absolutely" something that a lot of the players discussed in the locker room ahead of the Championships every year.

"It is absolutely something the players talk about around Wimbledon because of the all-whites," Watson told BBC Sport in June. "I think people speak about it a lot, maybe not to the media, but ourselves for sure."