French Open Bans Serena Williams From Wearing Life-Saving, Anti-Blood Clot Catsuit
Serena Williams wasn't trying to be some slutty woman of color when she wore her black Nike catsuit before dropping out of the 2018 French Open with an injury. Williams dealt with a life-threatening, post-pregnancy blot clot scare in 2017. The G.O.A.T. dedicated her ultimate power suit to "all the moms out there who had a tough recovery from pregnancy" on Instagram.
Serena agreed that the design was a partial nod to 'Black Panther'. "I call it, like, my Wakanda-inspired catsuit." The French Tennis Federation will have no more Wakanda-inspired dress on its professional tennis courts, banning Serena -- or any of her wannabes -- from wearing similar sartorial outfits in the future.
Bernard Giudicelli, the president of the French Tennis Federation, told Tennis magazine her catsuit was specifically a problem. “It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place,” he said. “I think that sometimes we’ve gone too far.”
Just to be clear, Williams' suit had a potentially live-saving functionality. As a full-body compression garment, it was designed to help with blood clots, a life-threatening health issue Serena's dealt with frequently. Williams was sidelined for a year, with several blod clots in both lungs in 2011. And when she was giving birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, last year, she had a pulmonary embolism that could have killed her. It was only her own knowledge of these life-threatening problems that demanded medical action when doctors and nurses were oblivious to what was happening.
“I had a lot of problems with my blood clots, and, God, I don’t know how many I have had in the past 12 months. So it is definitely a little functionality to it,” Williams said of the suit. “I have been wearing pants in general a lot when I play, so I can keep the blood circulation going. It’s a fun suit but it’s also functional, so I can be able to play without any problems.”
Giudicelli said the rules won’t be as strict as Wimbledon, which makes everyone wear white, but they will be asking designers to give them an advance look at designs for players and will “impose certain limits.”
