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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, it was reported.
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.”
The watermelon is regarded as a symbol for Palestinian solidarity, as its red, white, black and green colours match the flag.
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.
Keychains with watermelon slices as a symbol of public expression by Palestinians in demonstrations and works of art representing the struggle against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories (AFP/Getty)
Mr 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.
Mr Baker added: “But in terms of the watermelon, we don’t think that’s meeting the threshold for causing any type of disruption.”
Meanwhile on Thursday former Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini lived up to his dark horse tag with an impressive second-round win over 20th seed Arthur Fils to earn a first Centre Court triumph since 2021.
Berrettini missed out on a maiden grand slam title five years ago to Novak Djokovic and had experienced defeats on the main arena at All England Club in recent years to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.
Yet buoyed by an entertaining four-set victory over Stan Wawrinka on Tuesday, Berrettini wiped out Fils and sealed success with a classy volley on third match point.
