Victoria Azarenka forced to take off PSG shirt during warm-up ahead of her Australian Open semifinal match

Former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka was forced to remove a Paris Saint-Germain shirt whilst warming up at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Azarenka sported the PSG shirt ahead of her semi-final clash against Elena Rybakina on Thursday.

The chair umpire at the Rod Laver Arena was seemingly less than impressed with her outfit in tribute to the Ligue 1 champions, after asking her to remove the shirt and practice in her playing kit. Azarenka also attended her tournament press conference in the PSG shirt.

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The Belarusian’s tournament came to an end at the hands of Rybakina, after falling to a straight sets defeat to her rival. Speaking after the clash, she revealed she was ordered to remove the football jersey due to ‘sponsorship’ reasons.

“They told me to take it off twice because I had a different shirt," said the Belarussian. "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 type of things.

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"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 okay."