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My first memories of tennis were watching Chris Evert on TV. My Mom and I always loved how feminine she was compared to most players of the day with her bows, pretty dresses and hoop earrings.
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| Tracey Austin 1980s in a pinafore dress. Love the pom-pom socks! We all had those. |
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| Vitas Gerulaitis, was a wonderful player. The white Nike’s with blue swoosh are classics. |
When I was 7 we moved to a very suburban track home neighborhood, that had a little tennis club within walking distance. Dunnett’s Tennis Club, sadly no longer exists and was inexplicably bull-dozed to make more parking for an a rental car office. The little club will always live in my mind as a special place. My Mom walked me over there when I was in fourth grade, to sign me up for lessons. My tennis pro was named Bonnie and I adored her. I remember buying her a mug with her name and a rose on it. For my classes, my grandmother sewed me two custom tennis dresses, that I helped design. One was a white swing dress with blue and red piping and ruffled pants to match. The other was a white pique halter style with crossed racquets on the collars. I still have one of these somewhere.
I loved everything about tennis and being at the tennis club. Even at age 9, I remember the exciting people who seemed to belong there. There were dreamy boys who drove MG Midgets and green Triumph TR7 convertibles and glamourous ladies in elegant tennis ensembles. I drank it all in. This was not my reality. We were a middle class family, who played tennis at the local park and who did not belong to clubs. Something about this lifestyle was then and still now so appealing to me.
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| Borg in graphics. |
I continued off and on with my tennis. When I went to high school, my friend Monica convinced me to go out for the school team. We did and loved it and I’m so grateful she talked me into it. High school was the early 80s and the age of Swedish hunk Bjorn Borg, (who adorned my teen-age walls), Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, McEnroe, and so many other amazing players who dominated the game. When I look back to those times, they all look so clean-cut and preppy. I love the whites and stripes and sweaters that they all wore. The headbands,sweatbands, jackets and sweaters were their colorful accessories to the still mainly white wardrobes. I still admire those styles!
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| Conners and Gerulaitus. Love his sweater and white shorts. What a funny and amazing guy Vitus was. After finally beating Conners after a 16 match losing streak, he famously said, “Nobody beats Vitus Geralaitus 17 times in a row!” |
Today, whites are almost nonexistent on the courts! Today players sport brights in clothes and shoes. I am the first to like bright colors, but there is something about the formality and tradition of the whites that I miss. It made tennis seem a little more gentile than other sports and it was one of its great appeals. I love that they could dress like ladies and gentlemen, but still be some the greatest athletes in the world. In honor of the past champions, here’s a small gallery to inspire you, whether you play tennis or not.
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| Borg and Conners. |
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Evonne Goolagong of Australia, 1970s. Love her scalloped dress.
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| Bring back the tennis cardigan! Virginia Wade with the Queen, Wimbledon 1977. Her sweater was monogrammed. |
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| Arthur Ashe, gentleman and American legend. Wimbledon, 1975. |
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| Margaret Court 1970s. An Australian mom who quit tennis to have kids and came back. She had won more titles than any other woman. |
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| Bjorn Borg 1976. Loving the pukka shell necklace too. |
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| Borg after defeating McEnroe, 1980 at his fifth Wimbledon title. |
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| Arthur Ashe for Rolex. |
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| Martina Navratilova in a cable knit sweater. |
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| No one in the world of men’s and women’s tennis still has a better win/loss percentage than Chris Evert. She personified grace on and off the court and still does. |
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