Tennis star takes action after dress causes French Open drama

Camila Giorgi made a minor but important tweak to her outfit before at the French Open after the Italian’s dress caused some drama.

Daria Kasatkina said she is looking forward to sharing another “good memory” with Veronika Kudermetova when the Russian duo face each other in the French Open quarter-finals.

Kasatkina, seeded 20th, took advantage of an error-strewn performance from Italian Camila Giorgi to win their last-16 tie 6-2, 6-2.

Kasatkina made just 10 unforced errors to Giorgi’s 37 in a dominant display on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

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Giorgi had reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time in her career after upsetting seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka earlier in the week, but that’s where her run ended.

In that match against Sabalenka, Giorgi was spoken to by the umpire about her dress not being suitable. The problem was reportedly related to the size of the advertising logo for kitchen appliance manufacturer DeLonghi on Giorgi’s chest. Before the match the 30-year-old posted a photo of herself in the locker room on Instagram, tagging DeLonghi.

According to tennis commentator Jose Morgado, the umpire told Giorgi she could play in her outfit but would talk to the “office” about it after the match.

“I don’t have any change, this is my only dress. I played with it before,” Giorgi told the official at the time.

Giorgi had worn the same style of dress earlier in the tournament but without the DeLonghi logo.

Against Kasatkina on Monday night, she altered her outfit slightly. Instead of the logo appearing on her chest, it was shifted to her sleeve.

The DeLonghi logo was moved to Giorgi’s sleeve for her latest match. Camila Giorgi. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

Against Sabalenka the logo was on her chest. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

Kasatkina and Kudermetova, who are both 25, played against each other from a young age and were part of the Russian squad who won last year’s Billie Jean King Cup.

“(We played) many times in juniors. We played so many times,” said Kasatkina. “We were on one team winning Billie Jean King Cup last year, so we have many good memories to share together.

“Even before we played many European championships together because we’re the same age, so we have a lot of memories to share.

“We will have one more, playing quarters at Roland Garros, I think it’s a very nice moment.”

The draw guarantees at least one Russian semi-finalist in Paris. That heightens the prospect of the newly-crowned French Open champion not being able to play at Wimbledon, where Russian and Belarusian players have been banned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kasatkina broke into the world’s top 10 four years ago after reaching the last eight at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon before a slump in form.

But she reached four finals last season to climb back up the rankings and is now one win away from a first Grand Slam semi-final.

With AFP