Victoria Azarenka Bizarrely Forced To Remove PSG Shirt At Australian Open

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Victoria Azarenka wore a PSG shirt onto the court ahead of her semi-final match against Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open. She wasn't able to wear the shirt from the well-known French soccer team for long, however, as she was forced to remove it after stepping onto the court.

Azarenka had been wearing the PSG shirt ahead of many of her matches at this year's Australian Open and does so because it is her son's favorite soccer club. Aussie Open officials clearly had seen enough of the shirt as the umpire told her to remove it and warm up in the actual shirt she would be playing the match in.

The Belarusian took off the shirt at the umpire's request and guessed it was some sort of sponsorship issue.

“They told me to take it off twice because I had a different shirt,” Azarenka said in her post-match presser. “I think it’s the issue with the sponsorships. I guess the logos are too big … I know that I’m not allowed to play in that. I knew those types of things."

“But I can still step on the court in what I want to step on the court. I do it for my own reasons. My son wore the white jersey today to his practice, and I tried to wear a white jersey to my match but couldn’t. So that’s OK.”

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Azarenka is a Nike athlete and the only logo, other than PSG's itself, was a Nike swoosh. PSG's jersey sponsor is Qatar Airways, but that wasn't seen on the shirt she was wearing.

Victoria Azarenka rocked a PSG shirt ahead of her semi-final match at the Australian Open. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Azarenka was pushing to be just the fourth woman to ever win a Grand Slam after having a child but ultimately lost to Rykabina 7-6,7-3.

The 33-year-old won back-to-back Aussie Opens in 2012 and 2013 and last made a Grand Slam final appearance in 2020 at the U.S. Open.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.