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Ace up their sleeve!

Flashy clothes, skin-tight compression shorts, weird hair dos and a bad-boy attitude, tennis player Andre Agassi attracted a lot of attention on court.

Ace up their sleeve!

Rafael Nadal



Jasmine Singh

Flashy clothes, skin-tight compression shorts, weird hair dos and a bad-boy attitude, tennis player Andre Agassi attracted a lot of attention on court. Talking about attention, there are the deep-neck flashy tunics of Serena Williams, a head thick knotted plate and peplum tees for Maria Sharapova and now the dreadlocks flying in all possible directions in Dustin Brown’s case! Lawn tennis is much more than a language of life — more than advantage, service, fault, love… as Agassi describes in his book titled Open!

A lurking trend re-appears each time a tennis player covers his head with a stylish bandana or a female players ties beads to her hair. And now with the rules getting strict for the all–white dress code at Wimbledon, it leaves us some stylish and not-so-stylish statements. However, lawn tennis and fashion have never been divorced!

On the court

Dustin Brown’s deadlocks made it to the headlines in equal measure like his game. Says Sahil Parmar from Sangrur, who is now settled in Mumbai and is making a film on tennis and squash academies in North India, “At times, I forget a tennis players name; it is the dress or style that comes in handy as a reference. So much so that players like Serena Williams lost to Lindsay Davenport because her trademark hair beads went skittering across the court during one of the matches.”

In tennis, is it is believed that the player is on an island; it is also believed to be closest to solitary confinement, so some flashy colour doesn’t hurt the eye. Does it?

All is fair

Gaurav Bhardwaj, manager, Harvest Tennis Academy, Jassowal, Ludhiana, has kids coming from all across the globe. “We have girls coming from Siberia as well and they play tennis in what they are usually comfortable with, skirts mostly. And I haven’t seen players talking about their style more than the game.” Gaurav doesn’t see any harm in some style show. “It doesn’t distract serious game-lovers. There is only a constant smile on the face when they see Maria Sharapova adjusting her braid or Rafael Nadal appear in all jazzy-coloured head bands. White or no white, the love is for the game.”

Colour code

Wimbledon is traditional, historic tennis. No solid mass colouring, little or no dark or bold colours, no fluorescent colours, and all other items of clothing — hats, socks and shoes – should be white. In all others — US Open, French Open and Australian Open —the expression through style is lavish. Even though Pawan Kapoor, professional tennis player, calls Roger Federer the most stylish tennis player, he is also of the opinion, “It is the beauty of the strokes of the players that matters; not theirs style or dresses. However, the young, starting-out tennis players are quite smitten by the style that professionals exhibit.”

It’s hot

Female tennis players are definitely at par with Bollywood actresses! “Maria Sharapova is the most beautiful tennis player,” Anant Sandhu, professional player from Patiala, says, “ I liked her style as well. It’s time Wimbledon changed the rules. How does it matter if they wear all-white or orange, will it affect the seriousness of the game?”

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