Fiend at Court Unplugged
I have been cleaning my room. It’s arguably long overdue. I haven’t lived in this house in well over 30 years. I mean, the room was already clean. However, this house contains copious amounts of storage. The nooks and crannies continue to cough up tiny time capsules of a bygone era. Many of the found objects are tennis related.
I am going to assume that most readers are familiar with the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” 2020 was beyond a shadow of a doubt, an interesting time. In the same spirit, I am starting to wonder if the statement “May you live in a house with ample storage” is also a double edged sword.
This house has large walk-in closets and custom built in cabinetry in virtually every room. It is what a realtor would regard as a selling feature. At the same time, because there is so much storage, it is way too easy to defer making decisions about discarding items. As a result, some things drifted to the back of the cabinets as other items were layered in the front.
I found two vintage Elesse tennis outfits in the back of one of the cabinets in my room over the holiday. Inexplicably, they were in a place where tennis clothes were not historically stored. While I have no recollection of an intentional effort to keep these two specific outfits, these would have been likely candidates for sentimental retention.
The lavender and light green kit was one of my personal favorites. The pink and blue was simply iconic to the brand. Chris Evert prominently wore that outfit in 1982. In fact she won the 1982 US Open over Hana Mandlíková, 6–3, 6–1 in that exact ensemble.
YouTube has a vintage video of the complete match between Evert and Mandlíková. In addition to containing some great footage of Evert in that pink and blue outfit, there are some awesome and surprising details that can be observed in the match video.
Both players were still using wooden racquets in 1982. Graphite frames were already available on the consumer market, and I am pretty sure I had already switched over from wood by that time. People sometimes look at me skeptically when I mention that I played my formative tennis years with a wooden racquet. As a reference point, I graduated from high school in 1985.
Additionally, both players are clearly sponsored by Elesse as evidenced by the oversized patches. At the same time, they were wearing distinctly different kits. Back in the day players didn’t get a new outfit to unveil in conjunction with every Grand Slam, but tended to receive a few sets of the new line on a yearly basis. Professional tennis players would wear different outfits from day to day in tournaments.
To head off the obvious question, you will not see me rocking either of these vintage Elesse outfits on court in the near future. The Lavender and green kit is way too small. I could feasibly cram my body into the the pink and blue which was a little larger. However, the elastic in the skirt has disintegrated over time to the point of unsuitability.
Still, it was terrific to take a walk down memory lane with the discovery of these two outfits. It is worth a peek to check a minute or two of that footage from that 1982 US Open ladies final.
