Ball girls, wearing outfits condemned as 'sexist' by critics, applaud Spain's Carlos Alcaraz as he walks on to the court at the Madrid Open. Photo / Getty Images
Ball girls, wearing outfits condemned as 'sexist' by critics, applaud Spain's Carlos Alcaraz as he walks on to the court at the Madrid Open. Photo / Getty Images
The Madrid Open has been criticised for its “sexist” uniform for ball girls - as star players at the tournament are made to denounce domestic violence in a campaign.
Spain’s Association for Women in Professional Sport has said it is preparing to make a formal complaint about the outfits, whichinclude cropped tops that show the wearer’s midriff, flared pleated skirts and long socks.
Male ball boys can be seen at this week’s tournament wearing standard sporty shorts and T-shirts.
Pilar Calvo, a spokeswoman for the association, said: “It’s a way of feminising girls with respect to boys who don’t dress in the same way.
“Ultimately, it’s a form of sexist violence that is so widespread that people don’t even notice it,” she told online newspaper Público.
Madrid Open and sponsor Mutua Madrileña have organised a campaign against gender violence, with top players including Iga Sviatek, from Poland, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, from Greece, featuring in television advertisements describing men who abuse women as “losers”.
Critics say the outfits worn by ball boys at the tournament are a sharp contrast to those donned by their female counterparts. Photo / Getty Images
But Calvo claims the message is damaged by the decision to dress ball boys and girls so differently.
The Madrid Open told The Telegraph it had “no comment to make” on the row.
Organisers of the tennis tournament previously said that the outfits for ball girls and boys at this year’s event were designed by clothes brand Lacoste and that the sporting committee of the tournament had signed off on the company’s proposal.
Many users had noticed it, but this video – by @Lizzy8E – has delved deeper into the topic. In Madrid, there are two different ball crews, one of which is composed solely of models wearing a different uniform to the other, appearing in big matches only.pic.twitter.com/NcsFFMimOZ
The controversy has echoes of a row in 2004 when the tournament, then known as the Madrid Masters, hired women models to act as ball girls, dressing them in skimpy cleavage-revealing tops and split skirts.
Player Andre Agassi, from America, said at the time that “it was difficult, to say the least, to concentrate on the ball.”
On that occasion, the Spanish government got involved as Soledad Murillo, the secretary of state for equality, said the ball girls’ attire and manner of selection “fomented clear discrimination towards women who appear as simple objects of decoration and amusement”.
Murillo, who is running to become deputy mayor in this month’s local elections for the Socialist party, said that such mistakes continued to be made at the tournament “because it is men who make the decisions on uniforms”.
The tournament, organised by ATP Tour, has an all-male board of directors, and its senior leadership is made up of five men out of seven staff.
