US Open: Women Players Showing off More Skin than Skill

I’ve been quite unabashed in expressing my preference for women’s tennis. Because, frankly, the women’s game is not only almost as powerful as the men’s (with Venus hitting 125 mph serves); their fierce baseline strokes during relatively long rallies are also far more titillating to watch than the one big serve that now characterizes men’s tennis.

(Hail to 4-time Wimbledon Champ Venus Williams, The iPINIONS Journal, July 9, 2007)

One can be forgiven for thinking that fashion in women’s tennis has become almost as important as the game itself. After all, commentary during this year’s US Open clearly suggests that the way players look is almost as important as the way they play.  And no player has made herself the object of such distracting commentary than Venus Williams (30).

Here, for example, is the surreal exchange that transpired among CBS commentators during one of Venus’s opening round matches last week:

John McEnroe:  I think that dress has distracted [Venus].

Dick Enberg: It’s distracting you.

McEnroe: That’s a fair point.

Enberg: It sounds like it might be a distraction to her opponent.

McEnroe: Well, she’s tugging at it. She’s uncomfortable with it.

Mary Carillo: She uses that fabric a lot in her designs, John. And for the last couple of years we’ve seen her have to correct her outfit after every point.

(Yahoo Sports, September 5, 2010)

In fact, Venus has been courting more interest in her fashion designs than in her tennis game lately. But given the reviews of her designs, she’d be wise not to give up her day job.

In any case, Venus was in particularly revealing form when she showed up at a recent tournament wearing a flesh-colored tankini bottom that made it look like she was butt naked when her mini dress exposed her nether region, which occurred every time she swung her racket.  And she’s wearing skimpy outfits at this tournament that are equally revealing … and distracting.

Specifically, after every point, as commentator Carillo noted, Venus is treating spectators to the unseemly spectacle of her adjusting her dress, which is so tight that it rides up over her hips every time she moves to hit the ball. And it speaks volumes about her sex appeal that her recurring striptease and adjustment is even more of a turn off than Rafael Nadal’s habit of digging his underwear out of his ass after every point whenever he plays. (You’d think his trainer or his girlfriend would tell him to wear a jock strap!)

I hope my opening quote demonstrates what genuine appreciation I’ve always had for the physical prowess and skill these women athletes display. Perhaps I’m just an old-fashioned feminist, but I think this new trend – of women tennis players trying to look more like swimsuit models – betrays their athleticism.  Not to mention that what some of them allow us up to peep at when they’re on the court is what video voyeurs can get arrested for trying to capture when they’re on the streets….

Apropos of it being better to look good than to play good, when did Maria Sharapova (23) go from the pin-up darling of this sport to old hag…?  Because she certainly looked that way losing her quarterfinal match in straight sets to the new it girl, Caroline Wozniaki (20). And, following fashion, Caroline’s mini dress was designed by Stella McCartney to be short enough to expose her nubile buttocks, which were practically bursting out of her bright yellow tankini bottoms.

Just in terms of public decency, though, I wonder how this new fashion trend in women’s tennis is any different from the fashion trend that has boys wearing jeans halfway down their butts, exposing their underwear for the world to see….

Anyway, just consider the instructive fact that women basketball players wear outfits that are no more revealing than their male counterparts’.  Is there any reason why women tennis players cannot do the same?

I appreciate why women who play beach volleyball might think their skimpy outfits are necessary to promote interest in their relatively new sport. But I don’t see why women who play tennis think such outfits are necessary or even desirable. Not to mention that many of them would probably look a lot better more covered up.

Having said all that, if Venus wins this tournament, having made it through to the semifinals with a straight-set victory over Francesca Schiavone (30) last night, I might cut her some slack….

Related commentaries:
Hail to 4-time Wimbledon champ Venus Williams