Just before my participation in the Mother-Daughter National Grass Court Championships at the Longwood Cricket Club a couple of weeks ago, I learned an important lesson. When geeking out over my excitement at playing at such a historic location and the club’s all-white policy to my defenseless co-workers, I quickly realized that I had omitted a very important word: clothes. Without that context, the interpretation can take a dark turn into perceived racial exclusion, which is no longer a problem in the modern USTA ecosystem.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Longwood Cricket Club’s all-white dress code is about as strict as you will find on this side of the pond. When I say that the player must be dressed in all-white from head to toe, that includes an explicit provision that tennis shoes must be predominantly white. As fate would have it, white tennis shoes aren’t exactly in style at the moment.
Consequently, earlier this year, I made an in-person trip to Tennis Express in Houston for the sole (see what I did there?) purpose of purchasing white shoes for me and the Trophy Daughter. I wound up in a pair of the Roger Federer model from Ons. My daughter selected a pair of white Nikes. As we gathered to take a group photo Thursday morning as the tournament officially kicked off, I noticed that over half the people were wearing the same Nike shoes as my daughter. When it comes to all-white (clothes!), selections are limited.
I have always wondered what would happen if someone was unwilling or unable to buy a pair of predominantly white shoes or accidentally showed up in footwear that didn’t pass muster. I have heard rumors that some players spray paint their shoes or use white polish.
At Longwood this year, the preferred solution for shoes was apparently white duct tape. As we checked in for the tournament, I noticed a team in the Father-Daughter division using white tape to cover just enough of their entirely black shoes. Fortunately, all of the clothing we packed for the trip was white enough for the tournament. I think we were fairly conservative in our interpretation of the rules.
For reference, this is what passed for an acceptable tape job on non-white shoes at the tournament.
Unless you were specifically looking at their shoes, I don’t think anyone would have noticed.
