Tennis – A Glamorous Sport
Tennis is one of the biggest, most competitive and glamorous sports in the world, and has always given all tennis fans something to smile about. Tennis has always had its personalities who express their own unique styles and fashion sense on the court, which is often replicated by amateur players and fans. Whether it is Rafael Nadal’s vest top with long past-the-knee shorts, Roger Federer’s cardigan, Serena Williams’ rain jacket, and Sania Mirza’s nose-ring, you don’t have to look hard to see the fashion made famous by the players being copied across a to court near you.
Some players try a fashion accessory, which is slightly subtler than the traditional sweat band or baseball cap, and instead sport a tennis bracelet. First made famous in 1987 by glamorous tennis star Chris Evert, the tennis bracelet is a string of dazzling diamonds worn around wrist. Prior to 1987, tennis bracelets were previously known as in-line bracelets, because it is, essentially, line of diamonds around your wrist. During a match 1987 Chris Evert’s in-line bracelet broke, scattering diamonds around the court and buying her time to recover her breath and eventually go on to win the match. Sin then in-line bracelets have been known as tennis bracelet and have become synonymous with style, elegance and the summer. Among the men, Agassi, a skinny teenage with a skinny look and an ‘omigosh’ attitude, transformed himself within years to become the international heartthrob with leonine hair.
Tennis as a sport and a lucrative marketing idea, have come a long way since the days of Chris Evert, who was the original tennis diva, followed by Gabriela Sabatini. Beautiful women players have always attracted a lot of attention, more off court than on court. This attention however has come with a price. The publicity surrounding sportswomen such as Anna Kournikova, who are famous more for their looks than their ability, puts women off exercise, psychologists claim. Ana Ivanovic, who has been hounded for adding glamour to tennis along with the ultimate glamour queen Anna Kounikova, however, says that it is an illusion to feel that tennis is glamorous; instead, being a professional tennis player isn’t half as glamorous as it may seem.
Dr Precilla Choi, author of Femininity and the Physically Active Woman, says the emphasis on the appearance of female athletes, swimmers and tennis players increased the gender gap in sport and raises false expectations about the benefits of keeping fit. Since these expectations are often unrealistic, many women drop out. She criticizes the way that more muscular sportswomen, such as the French tennis player Mary Pierce, get less publicity and sponsorship than more ‘feminine’ competitors. Women in sport are still being valued more for what they look like than their performance.
With mounting pressure for advertisements, organizers too make all efforts to highlight the glamour quotient of the sport. Recently at the Tennis Masters Series in Madrid, Spain fashion models replaced traditional ball boys and girls. Cheers and whistles greeted the women. However, some players feel that it is entertaining. As long as the job is done well, the difference isn’t noticeable. Despite winning applause from spectators, they had a mixed reception off-court. The people however as always, give a mixed reaction to such stunts, which are mainly employed to catch immediate attention and harness publicity.
Tennis is a power sport and has given the world some of its most popular sport icons like Billie Jean King, Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and many such others. They have all had their place under the sun but the kind of glamour the world associates with tennis today was not the case then. Bigger money has been pumped into the game and with it publicity and marketing have taken a leap. All this has contributed to making Tennis a hugely popular and glamorous sport today.
