Wimbledon 2017: Doubles team forced off the court for wearing black pants

Zsombor Piros and Yibing Wu fell foul of the All England Club's strict dress code, before being supplied with white pants and ordered to change

The All England Club’s infamously strict all-white dress code is back in the headlines, after two 18-year-olds were ordered to change out of their black pants while playing in the boy’s doubles tournament.

Wimbledon’s strict rules specify that players must dress “almost entirely in white” – but Zsombor Piros of Hungary and Yibing Wu of China probably weren’t reckoning on the rule including their choice of underpants.

The pair took to the court wearing black pants which were visible through their white shorts, and that was enough to land them in a spot of bother with the All England Club.

Piros and Wu were quickly presented with a pair of white briefs each, before being instructed to leave the court and change.

Quite why Wimbledon organisers had some emergency pairs of tighty whities just lying around the place is anybody’s guess, but fortunately the quick change in undergarments did not do the pair’s game any harm. They won in straight sets.

Wimbledon updated their dress code policy in time for the 2014 Championships, with the all-white rule becoming even stricter.

In a letter sent to players in time for the Championships, tournament referee Andrew Jarrett said: “Undergarments that either are or can be visible during play (including due to perspiration) must also be completely white and contain no more than 1cm of coloured trim.”

This is far from the first undergarment controversy at this year’s Wimbledon.

Williams wore a pink bra in the first week of Wimbledon (Getty)

Back in the first week, Venus Williams was asked to change out of her pink bra during a rain break in the second set of her match against Elise Mertens.

Asked in her post-match press conference about whether officials had spoken to her about the colour of her bra, Venus said: “Yeah, so I don’t want to talk about undergarments.

"It’s kind of awkward for me. I’ll leave that to you. You can talk about it with your friends. I’m going to pass.”