Wimbledon’s tournament director has said the watermelon symbol often used to represent the colours of the Palestinian flag does not meet the “threshold” for causing disruption, after a Turkish player stuck a vibration dampener in the shape of the fruit on her racket.
World number 51 Zeynep Sonmez used a watermelon shock absorber on Thursday after organisers allegedly banned her from wearing a pin in support of Palestine.
Sonmez told a Turkish state-run news agency on Thursday: “I used to wear a pin. Tournaments no longer allow me to wear it.
“We had a discussion with the organisers because the Ukrainian flag is allowed, but the Palestinian is not.
“They ultimately told us they definitely would not allow it. So, I can’t wear the pin. I can use the vibration dampener, and they can’t object to that. That’s why I put the watermelon symbol on my racket.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, tournament director Jamie Baker said that players have always been banned from political messaging on court, adding that this is the case for most grand slams.
Baker said the “Ukrainian situation” was “unique”, adding: “You know everything that happened here around our government guidance and the kind of international response, and we did respond to that and provided support to Ukrainian players for quite a while, so that was I guess an individual situation.”
Wimbledon responded to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by banning Russian and Belarusian players from the Championships.
Baker added: “But in terms of the watermelon, we don’t think that’s meeting the threshold for causing any type of disruption.”
The watermelon is regarded as a symbol for Palestinian solidarity, as its red, white, black, and green colours match the flag.
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