An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Women’s Tennis Revolutionary: Anna Kournikova ~ Kournikova revolutionized how women’s tennis is marketed. She also may have contributed to the journey toward equitable prize money. @BenRothenberg, @NCR_Tennis, @FortyDeuceTwits, @jon_wertheim
Martina Navratilova is the perfect case study of inequities in professional tennis endorsements. It is an undeniable fact that throughout here playing career she did not receive the same level of corporate sponsorship that the other players in her tier of performance were routinely awarded. We have previously touched on two contemporaries of Navratilova, Zina Garrison and Lori McNeil. Those players also did not receive many endorsement opportunities and that fact is attributed to the color of their skin. On the other hand, Navratilova’s issue is that she has always been always open about her sexuality. The tennis industry powers during her career simply did not believe that people would purchase products enforced by bisexual and homosexual athletes.
“2018 AO Flashback: Fashion Hits and Misses” published last Sunday focused on the duplicity of the Baseline Tennis columns highlighting fashion “Hits” and “Misses” from The Australian Open in 2018. That year was selected intentionally and it wasn’t because of the garish bright salmon color that was predominate in the Nike line that year. In 2018, Romanian tennis player Simona Halep was the lead photo and story in the “Misses” column. The official Tennis Channel twitter account, a part of the same media conglomerate as Baseline Tennis, even tweeted about Halep as a fashion “miss.”
The dawn of each Grand Slam tournament sparks a ritual in the Fiend at Court household. I say something along the lines of “It’s official. Nike has completely run out of attractive color combinations.” To which the Fiend at Court spousal unit replies “Please don’t buy me any of that.” Fun fact: Outside of league and tournament swag, almost the entirety of the Fiend at Court household’s tennis wardrobe has been gleaned from the clearance rack of one of the major online tennis retailers. We are experts in what is likely to eventually be offered at deep discount.
I knew I would be writing about former WTA professional Anne White as soon as she was mentioned in Zina Garrison’s autobiography. She came up in passing due to her tangential involvement when the sportswear company Pony decided to not renew Garrison’s clothing sponsorship contract. Before coming across that story, I couldn’t have told you anything at all about Anne White.
Before I delve too deeply into this topic, I first have to make it perfectly clear that my personal policy is to never accept fashion advice from an engineer. If the relevancy of that statement is not immediately obvious, let me provide a reminder the tag line of this blog here: “An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily tennis journal.” Based on a lifetime of experience, engineers and fashion don’t normally play well together.
The story of the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit chipping ice off courts in order to get a league match played last weekend inadvertently set off a cavalcade of similarly themed photos. As it turns out, there are a lot of players in our orbit who essentially did the same thing. Many went out to their local courts armed with lawn tools last weekend.
Yesterday I shared a photo that illustrated that some players in the DFW area chipped ice off a court at Hurst Tennis Center in order to get some USTA League matches played as scheduled. Today I am sharing another photo from earlier in the week that shows that the courts a couple of miles away at Richland Tennis Center were fully playable. This photo was provided courtesy of Bobby Reeves who is the Head Tennis Pro at that facility.
Many years ago I once chipped ice off a tennis court before playing a junior match in the Cotton Bowl tennis tournament. That event is an indelible part of our family lore. To add insult to injury, I lost the ensuing match. The Umpire who Gave Birth To Me watched me play from the cozy confines of the pro shop. She was less than impressed with my level of energy during the match as evidenced by the fact that I never took my sweats off. It was c-c-c-c-old.
The recent spate of arctic weather makes this the perfect time to discuss the inflatable tennis bubble. Desmond Margetson, a black American tennis player and engineer is the inventor of the structure that enables seasonal indoor tennis. Since February is designated as Black History month AND the week of February 21-27 is designated as “Engineers Week” it is the perfect time to discuss the tennis bubble.