Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tennis player forced to change dresses because of oversized logo

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A fourth-round match at the Australian Open was delayed on Monday night when the chair umpire determined that a logo on the front of Ekaterina Makarova's shirt was too large and had to be removed. The 22-year-old Russian was warming up before her match against Kim Clijsters when umpire Mariana Alves noticed one of the logos and made Makarova leave the court to change.

When she returned, Makarova had changed into an identical dress that didn't have any attached logos. She began the match without them and then had some attached during changeovers in the first set. The offending logo was eventually moved to her right shoulder.

Grand Slam rules dictate that logos on the front of the shirt cannot exceed four square inches. Larger logos are allowed on the sleeves, which is where Makarova's banned logo eventually was placed.

At her post-match press conference, Makarova admitted that she was the one who made the initial error. The Russian told reporters that she put the logo on the front of her shirt but that the incident was "nothing important."

[Photos: The best and worst dressed of the 2011 Australian Open]

Makarova pushed the third-seeded Clijsters to a first-set tiebreak but only mustered three points. After dropping the tiebreak, the 49th-ranked Russian appeared to self-destruct in losing the final set 6-2.

Here's a before and after shot of Makarova's logo fiasco:

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