Rodionov was wearing blue boxers under his shorts, breaking Wimbledon's strict all-white dress code, and he had to return to the locker room to change.
Amazingly, it took more than one official to determine the seriousness of Rodionov's "offence" and what should be done about it.
New York Times tennis writer Ben Rothenberg picked up the incident and lamented the pedantic rule in London that dictates all players must wear almost entirely white.
That means white shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, sweatbands and, apparently, even underwear.
According to Rothenberg, the problem was Rodionov's underwear would become visible when his shirt rode up as he served. He wore black undies in his previous match without any issue, but it was a different story this time around, although it didn't put him off his game.
"It was fine, I got more relaxed, actually," Rodionov said. "So I think it helped me."
Despite the inconvenience, Rodionov went on to defeat Ellis 6-3 6-7 6-3 to advance to the quarters. No doubt, he'll hit the local shopping centre to stock up on some brand spanking new pairs of gleaming white undies to avoid a repeat of what happened on Thursday.
This latest incident was yet another example of officials going to extreme lengths to preserve Wimbledon tradition.
The day prior, four boys in the junior event also fell foul of the All England Club's all-white clothing policy, after showing up on court sporting black-and-blue underwear.
Top-seeded doubles pair Zsombor Piros of Hungary and China's Wu Yibing were handed white underwear by a courtside official and sent back to the locker room to change.
One of their opponents, Brazil's Joao Reis da Silva, was also sanctioned but he protested, claiming his grey underwear should have been acceptable.
"We changed, but the Brazilian guy refused at first, because he said grey was OK," Piros said. "He was gone for about 30 minutes, so it took a long time to start the match."
Piros and Wu, the top seeds, won that match on Wednesday, but sporting new white underwear in their next clash on Thursday, lost in the second round to Sebastian Korda and Nicolas Meija.
"The blue-and-black shorts were our lucky pants," said Piros, who had worn his more colourful attire in the early rounds of the singles tournament.
"There were no signs to indicate we were supposed to wear white underwear. I only got caught out, because a little bit of blue was showing.
"Some umpires don't say anything. Maybe they prefer not to focus on the underwear."
Piros said the white replacements rustled up by tournament officials were very comfortable.
"They never asked for them back," he added. "If I come back to play here again, I will remember not to wear blue or green."
Wimbledon has clamped down on fashion faux-pas both at this tournament and in the past.
Five-time champion Venus Williams had to change her bra in a rain delay during her first-round match last week, as the pink straps were visible on her shoulders. The American, however, was reluctant to criticise the decision.
"I don't want to talk about undergarments," said the 37-year-old, who reached the final last night. "It's kind of awkward for me - I'll leave that to you.
"You can talk about it with your friends. I'm going to pass."
Two years ago, Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard turned heads by wearing a black bra under her white playing top and, in 2013, even seven-time champion Roger Federer stepped out of line, when he was banned from wearing tennis shoes with orange soles.
