Wimbledon women forced to play without bras following all-white clampdown

Some female players had been introducing colour to outfits with bright underwear

Naomi Broady during day one of the Wimbledon Championships (PA)

Pat Cash has claimed that some women players at Wimbledon 2014 have been forced to play without underwear due to a "ridiculous" clampdown on the rule that outfits must be entirely white.

The former Wimbledon champion said that some competitors didn't have any sports bras deemed suitable by the tournament and instead had to go without them.

The clampdown comes after some players, including Serena Williams, tried to inject colour into their outfits in previous years by wearing bright underwear.

"Some of the girls have been told to go back and change their bras and tops because they had slight colour on them," Cash told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"I believe some of the girls didn’t have suitable sports bras and had to go without them. It has absolutely gone ridiculous."

Wimbledon officials imposed new guidelines this year asking that coloured trim on outfits be no wider than 1cm.

In a letter sent to players, tournament referee Andrew Jarrett, also wrote: "Undergarments that either are or can be visible during play (including due to perspiration) must also be completely white and contain no more than 1cm of coloured trim."

Cash, who was due to play in the master's competition, has pulled out of the tournament in protest to the new rules after his own training shoes did not meet them.

He said that the last time he played without the specially adapted shoes he suffered an injury.

"It's archaic thinking," he added.

"One of the players was called into the referees’ office because he had blue underwear that showed through when he got sweaty so he was told not to wear dark underwear."

Venus Williams defended the rule change however, saying that all-white is a nice novelty and that everyone "glows" in the colour.

"I think it's a nice change," she said. "I think everyone just kind of glows in white. Obviously not all year, because anything every day is boring. But during these two weeks, it's nice."