Tatiana Golovin, sporting red knickers, during her loss against Tamira Paszak on Thursday. (AP) Reports, results on 20

On a grey day at Wimbledon, the only true dash of colour was provided by Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin, who on Wednesday wore a pair of red knickers underneath her dress and risked breaking the strict ‘predominantly white’ clothing rules.

The interest in Golovin’s underwear was reminiscent of when ‘Gorgeous Gussie’ Moran teased the All England Club by flashing her lace-trimmed knickers in 1949.

The All England Club are famously stern about players having to wear ‘predominantly white’ clothes, but a spokesman said that Golovin, the No 17 seed, had been within the rules as the red knickers had not gone below her hemline.

Explaining the decision, the spokesman said on Thursday: “They were cleared with the referee in advance by the player. On the basis that they are underwear, they do not have to conform to the predominantly white rule.

“If they are above the hemline they are deemed to be underwear and not shorts.”

“They say that red is the colour that proves you are strong and that you are confident, so I’m happy with my red knickers,” Golovin said after her 5-7, 6-3, 8-6 victory over Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh in round one.

“I’m going to carry on wearing the knickers for as long as I’m winning. For now, for these two weeks, it’s going to be red. Then it will be a surprise after that.

“It is fun because I think it’s important to get a young crowd involved with tennis, to get a young crowd out there watching. We’re just trying to entertain, and it is fun for us too.” Golovin said the umpire had not even mentioned the clothing rule to her.

[Golovin returned to the court on Thursday apparently unperturbed by the headlines her choice of underwear had prompted — and wearing red knickers again, adds Reuters. Not many post-match news conferences at Wimbledon start with the question “Can I ask you about your knickers?”

Unabashed, the Russian-born player had replied: “They say red is the colour that proves that you’re strong and you’re confident so I’m happy with my red knickers.” Strength and confidence were not enough on Thursday, however and Golovin lost 2-6, 6-3, 1-6 to Austrian Tamira Paszek.]