TENNIS IS NOT-SO-QUIETLY BECOMING THE NEWEST THING. SUSIE RUSHTON REVEALS WHY IT’S GAME, SET, FOUND-MY-MATCH FOR SO MANY OF US RIGHT NOW
It was just a vague offer: ‘A few of us are going to a beginners group at the club – wanna come?’ She was another parent I’d met in the park during the long hours of maternity leave, my body feeling increasingly stiff with repetitive baby-toil. I was uncertain; I’d never played tennis as a kid. I had no racquet and no idea. We don’t take it seriously, she said. And the coach is funny.
That was seven years ago – since then, I’ve laughed at more tennis coaches, hit more serves, and splurged on more cute pleated skirts than I could have imagined.
Tennis is the ultimate feelgood sport. You’re in the fresh air, darting from side to side, trying to keep your eye on the ball. The minutes and hours melt away. It’s impossible to think of anything else as you rotate your midsection, arms outstretched as racquet (hopefully) meets fuzzy yellow felt with a satisfying thwack.
Lately, I noticed that my local courts are seriously busy. In the last year, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) reports that 5.6m adults played, the highest number ever recorded; 42% of those were women, which makes tennis one of the most gender-balanced sports in the UK.
Does it help the image of the sport that women like Anna Wintour play daily? She’s not the only style leader with a racquet in her hand. Where there were once only yoga mats and DryRobes, I now scroll past tennis bags on the grids of energetic influencers. From Laura Bailey to Skye McAlpine, Loeffler Randall’s Jessie Randall to Wardrobe Icons founder Laura Fantacci, everyone seems to be honing their game.
Tennis and fashion have always partnered up. The kit is sleek, and cool. A certain preppy aesthetic lingers, not least in the impractical ‘whites’. But women’s tennis is also modernising. On the professional side, Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka are erasing the line between athlete and influencer; they have contracts with Dior and Louis Vuitton, have strong bodies, assert their own viewpoints. Luxury houses are responding with dedicated collections: picky players can now shop from LV and Gucci, along with athletics brands Alo, Vuori and Lululemon (plus Lacoste, of course). On the catwalk, Miu Miu, The Row and JW Anderson all borrowed a preppy aesthetic from the court.
This summer, we will also be served Zendaya’s tennis flick Challengers, in which she plays a thrusting young WTA star; Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert helped train her for the role. Wimbledon fortnight, the most glamorous of Grand Slams, is a summer staple, but another big moment for tennis this year will be at the Paris Olympics, to be played on the distinctive red clay courts of Roland Garros. For those who take their strokes seriously, there are new tennis retreats to book: at celebr
