Andreescu took to the court to play Harmony Tan, but winds in the open arena continued to billow her skirt and affect her shots, forcing the 22-year-old to approach the chair umpire and request an extra bathroom break to change .
“Won’t that count as one of my substitutions? I mean it’s not my fault, it’s Nike’s,” he told the referee.
“This dress is so, so bad… I have to go (change), this is so bad.”
Andreescu returned wearing a white Nike tank top and skirt and eventually beat Tan 6-0 3-6 6-1.
“It was just bothering me in some front. It just felt like it was coming up a little bit. Obviously the wind didn’t help,” he told reporters.
“But I didn’t mean any disrespect with what I said to the ref. I was trying to get him not to take that bathroom break away, because I know we only get two. It was really nice that he said it was absolutely fine.
“I definitely could have used a different choice of wording. So I apologize to anyone I disrespected. I love Nike and I hope I can be with them for the rest of my life!”
Andreescu will next play Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
