Wimbledon is renowned for the stringent dress codes it imposes on its hallowed courts, with an ‘all-white’ diktat originally enshrined in the regulations almost 150 years ago.
Yet I hear Emma Raducanu, has been ‘outraging members’ at the home of tennis by wearing a provocative pink kit while practising there.
One irked insider at SW19 complained that the British-Chinese star, who won the US Open in 2021 at the age of 19, is wearing ‘whatever outfit she wants’.
The rules state players should wear ‘suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white’ for both practice and matches adding: ‘White does not include off white or cream. There should be no solid mass or panel of colouring. A single trim… is acceptable, but must be no wider than one centimetre.’
However, witnesses say Raducanu is not playing by the rules and accuse her of ‘arrogance’.
‘It’s so unfair,’ one member said. ‘Emma rocks up in a pink outfit while everyone else respects the all-white rule. Who does she think she is? Just because she’s won the US Open doesn’t mean she can wear whatever she wants.’
Bigger names than Raducanu have fallen foul of Wimbledon’s deeply conservative rules.
In 2013, Roger Federer had to change his orange-soled Nikes, and last year Novak Djokovic had to get special permission to wear a light grey knee brace following surgery.
Emma Raducanu clenches her fist after securing a point against Spain’s Rebeka Masarova during a match at Indian Wells, California in 2024
Members of the All England Club in Wimbledon have been ‘outraged’ that Raducanu (pictured at Indian Wells in 2024) rocks up to practice sessions in SW19 in a pink kit
Raducanu hits a ball near the tramlines at Indian Wells 2024. She dropped out of the competition this year on straight sets in the first round
The row comes as Raducanu’s tennis standards seem to be slipping, too.
Last week she left the Indian Wells in the first round after a straight-sets defeat by Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima. Insiders tell me she’s even lost to members who play at Wimbledon.
Perhaps a switch to all-white may bring Raducanu more luck?
Courtney in Love with UK
Courtney Love desperately wants to be a UK citizen as she follows Ellen DeGeneres in fleeing Trump for these shores.
Kurt Cobain’s ex Courtney, 60, right, told a tribute to Bob Dylan at London’s Royal Geographical Society that the US is ‘like cyanide now’.
She added: ‘I so want to live here and in six months I get to be a citizen. I’m applying!’
Courtney Love (pictured at a Fendi Couture fashion show in Paris) can’t wait to become a British citizen
Leo chills with Orlando
Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom have a well-documented bromance, from celebrating Orlando’s 41st birthday on a lads’ trip to Morocco in 2018, to holidaying on Jeff Bezos’ superyacht last summer.
And last month, they took their friendship to the next level. I hear the Hollywood actors travelled to Iceland together and stayed in bespoke glass igloo-style domes on a frozen lake, above, right beneath the Northern Lights.
I hear Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom travelled to Iceland together and stayed in glass igloo-style domes beneath the Northern Lights (file photo)
Bamber caught tucking into salad
My spies saw Ellie Bamber – the actress who will star as Kate Moss in an upcoming biopic – at Maison Francois in St James’s last week. I’m told she was tucking into a gargantuan leafy salad. Method acting to play the waifish model, perhaps?
Beckham’s favourite Notting Hill spot blacklists influencers
The Beckhams might be pleased to know that their favourite neighbourhood spot, Dorian in Notting Hill, is blacklisting influencers, or ‘social scumbags’, as the restaurant calls them, for sending ‘spammy’ requests asking for free food.
Not only that, staffers are recording the behaviour of every diner who walks through the door.
‘We rank all the guests,’ owner Chris D’Sylva tells me. ‘Anyone angling for a free meal is just not our customer,’ he says. ‘It’s just disrespectful.’
Dorian bistro in Notting Hill (pictured) is now blacklisting troublesome influencers and recording diners’ behaviour
Catherine strikes back
Guinness heiress Catherine Hesketh, 72, has upped the stakes in her battle with Cheshire locals enraged at plans to build 500 homes on her land.
In protest they submitted an application to turn her London home into a sheep museum.
Now she has turned a footpath into what looks like the ‘perimeters of a prison camp’ by blocking it with concrete slabs, forcing elderly neighbours on a long detour to reach their veg patches. Ex-local councillor Jon Egan has called the move ‘shocking and utterly disrespectful’.
Royal Blush
Queen Elizabeth II notoriously disliked smoking, but Tom Parker Bowles, 50, says he once escaped a telling-off.
Speaking at an event in Windsor, Queen Camilla’s son said he met the late Queen twice.
Tom Parker Bowles (pictured) revealed he once escaped a telling-off from the late Queen after his sister went out for a cigarette
‘Second time was at my mother’s wedding. My sister had gone out for a fag and suddenly we heard this voice: “Are you lost?” She was there with ten corgis and took us back in.’
He says Camilla has cooked for the King, ‘but I don’t think there’s a lot of “Honey I’m home, what’s for dinner?” It’s a bit more planned.’
