Women’s Tennis is facing many accusations about sexism after recent wardrobe incidents. On Tuesday, August 28th, 2018, French female tennis player Alize Cornet had been penalized at the US Open for taking off her shirt to readjust it while on the court because of the sweltering humidity. 

The tournament was held in Queens, New York as temperatures increasingly soared over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Alize Cornet played against Sweden’s Johanna Larsson during the second day of the 2018 U.S. Open. According to the Guardian, a “heat rule” was in effect, allowing players to take a 10-minute break to cool off and rehydrate between the second and third set. When Alize Cornet returned to the court after her break, she noticed that her shirt was on backward and quickly took it off to correct it. Cornet was wearing a sports bra and turned away from the cameras to adjust, but this still prompted umpire Christian Rask to hit her with a code violation because she was on the court at the time. The Women’s Tennis Association say women tennis players are only allowed to remove shirts when they are off-court 

However, this escalated into a controversial issue when fans realize that male players are not subject to the same rules; Novak Djokovic took his shirt off on the same day and sat courtside between games while trying to cool down in the heat. 

“Of course, I was surprised when I just changed T-shirt really quick and he gave me the code violation, I didn’t expect it, and I told him it was pretty weird,” Corner said at a press conference on Wednesday. 

Other players called it sexist and American Bethanie Mattek- Sands called the decision “weak” while Australia’s Casey Dellacqua said it was “ridiculous”. 

U.S. Open officials issued a statement on Wednesday apologizing for the penalty, saying Cornet’s attire change was not a code violation. The WTA also released a statement saying Cornet did “nothing wrong” and the code violation was “unfair”.