Frances Tiafoe forced to black out sponsor logo before Delray Beach match
The chair umpire delayed the start of his match against Rinky Hijikata after Tiafoe’s shirt violated ATP logo rules.
Frances Tiafoe had a strange start to his match at the Delray Beach Open on Monday.
The No. 8 seed opened his campaign at the ATP 250 event in South Florida against Aussie qualifier Rinky Hijikata. But before their match began, umpire Joshua Brace climbed down from his chair and halted Tiafoe, informing him that his shirt violated the ATP’s logo rules.
Tiafoe was wearing lululemon’s Ventilated Sleeveless Tennis Shirt in black, which featured the lululemon logo on the left chest, along with two stacked logos on the right chest for tech company UKG and multinational bank Barclays.
As the delay stretched on, the Delray Beach crowd began booing loudly while officials searched for a solution. That solution proved simple—Brace had a ball kid bring over a black marker and used it to color over the offending logo.
Tiafoe, laughing, asked what he was supposed to do about the rest of his shirts. The American is known for sweating heavily and going through multiple outfit changes during a match. He packed his spare shirts into a bag, sent it to his team along with the marker, and had them black out the Barclays logo on each one.
According to the ATP rulebook: “If sleeveless, then two logo positions may be placed on the front, however neither shall exceed 6 sq in (3 sq cm).”
It wasn’t the first time a player has run afoul of logo rules before a match. Last year at Roland Garros, Hailey Baptiste was stopped because the Nike logo on her headband was too large. In that case, the fix was the same—an umpire used a black marker to cover the logo.
Tiafoe became an official brand ambassador for Lululemon in January 2025 after previously wearing Nike, and he competes in K-Swiss shoes.
Once his outfit was sorted, the 28-year-old needed just 73 minutes to secure a 6-4, 6-4 win and move into the second round, improving his record at the tournament to 12–4.
“I’m happy, I’m happy. Really happy about it. I thought I played pretty well tonight,” Tiafoe said in his on-court interview. “Thanks everybody for coming out. It’s nice to have another home tournament.”
Tiafoe, who won his first ATP title at Delray Beach in his 2018 debut, will next face American qualifier Zachary Svajda.