“10s Whenever” Newsletter Vol. 108

Written by: Staff on 18th January 2014

"10s Whenever" Newsletter Vol. 108

epa04026033 Sam Querrey of the USA in action during his match against Fabio Fognini of Italy in round three of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 17 January 2014. EPA/DAVID CROSLING AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Baked Australia

Check out our site, 10sballs.com, daily for Australian Open news and forward our newsletter to your tennis friends.

When a well equipped professional tennis player packs for Wimbledon, if he or she is truly prepared, one would find pairs of “grass court” shoes, long and short sleeved “sweaters”, perhaps long sleeved shirts, long tights for women, warm up pants, etc.–all to prepare for the grass and Wimbledon’s famously cold and wet weather.

And when professionals prepare for Australia, apparently there is no special preparation despite the fact that Oz’s weather–the extreme heat–is far more debilitating than London’s damp and cold.

Now everyone knows that in extreme heat it’s best to wear light colored (white) clothing, loose fitting garments and to cover up shoulders, arms and heads. Everyone knows that! Apparently not.

Serena Williams played in 100+ degrees in a deep pink colored outfit with her shoulders exposed to the sun and, and this is the part that gets me, a solid black back to her dress. The better to absorb all the heat possible and to make her as uncomfortable as could be I guess! No wonder she staggered off court after one of her matches and passed on her interview until she had a chance to “recover”. And how do you explain Sam Querrey sensibly attired in long, loose fitting white shorts and a loose white shirt–how do you explain topping this sensible outfit off with a black hat. I guess the black hat, absorbing all the heat it could, offset any benefit Sam could get from his white outfit. Many of the women wore dark colored clothing–tight fitting at that–to absolutely avoid a layer of cooling air between themselves and the fabric–with a good deal of their upper torso.s exposed–instead of protecting themselves with loose fitting white clothing. Why?

Remember Ivan Lendl, the consummate professional, who famously wore a white baseball style hat in the extreme heat with a French Foreign Legion style “cape” covering his ears and neck in extreme heat? No one did that this past week–despite Lendl having a court side seat and coaching Andy Murray this year. Ironically, the ball persons actually did wear a version of Lendl’s “hat cape”–alas, these poor souls had to wear it in a deep red color–therefore making them as hot as possible. The ball persons long sleeved shirts were also in deep red–their arms were protected from the sun, but they roasted as the dark color absorbed as much sun light and heat as possible. Lines people also wore long sleeved shirts–sensible in the extreme sun, but in a medium blue color again absorbing heat to make them as uncomfortable as possible.

With all the talk we hear about “professionalism”, attention to training, details about equipment and all the other things that make today’s tennis professionals truly amazing, there they were, hundreds of them, staggering about in temperatures reaching 120+ degrees on the courts, in direct sunlight for hours and hours, wearing apparel that didn’t do what it could to give them an “edge”. How can this be?

Partially it is “marketing”–the major tennis apparel companies have decided that certain dark colors are “in” for this year and that’s what their charges wore despite the heat. Partially it is that the agents, managers, coaches and players may not be as “professional” as they think they are–they look for every advantage, but ignored the help they could get from their apparel. And some of it is just ignorance–forgetting that it often gets very, very hot in Australia at this time of year and making no plans to deal with it. Well, this time almost everyone was treated to having to play not one, but two matches in these awful conditions. What a shame!

There is much more I could say about Baked Australia. The “heat rules”, the roofs being opened and closed, the fairness of the way the tournament handled things in general and much more. I’ll save that for another day. For today, I just wish someone had dressed more players correctly and taken advantage of what everyone knows about heat and the human body, about science, human experience and most of all, about common sense.

The author, a long time apparel industry executive with involvement in supplying numerous professional tennis players with endorsed apparel to wear on the tour, prefers to be identified as a “Guardian of the Game”.

follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the 10sBalls.com newsletter through our website.

Our email address is:

lovey@10sballs.com

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Murray, Australian Open, heat, Sam Querrey, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls Top Stories

In Case You Missed It

EUGENIE BOUCHARD NAMED 2018 TENNIS CANADA FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR / EUGENIE BOUCHARD NOMMÉE JOUEUSE DE L’ANNÉE 2018 DE TENNIS CANADA

Tennis Canada announced on Wednesday that Eugenie Bouchard is the winner of the 2018 Excellence Awards in the Female Player of the Year and Singles Player of the Year categories.

TENNIS NEWS • CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIPS • TOMMY HAAS, TAYLOR FRITZ, STEVE JOHNSON, MARDY FISH AND MORE

Time to get tickets to watch! Surly you have heard about The Largest Open Tennis Event in America!

TENNIS NEWS • RAFA NADAL CONFIRMS RETURN TO PRACTICE, EYES ABU DHABI EXHIBITION AND AUSTRALIAN SUMMER

According to Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal was supposed to be back at practice on either Dec. 4 or 5. Well, better late than never!

Conchita Martínez prepara la temporada 2019 de Karolina Pliskova en Tenerife

Española y checa ya trabajaron juntas durante el pasado Open de Estados Unidos

ALEJANDRO’S FAVORITE PHOTOS FOR 10SBALLS FROM SOME OF THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENTS

Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia hits a forehand to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia during her second round match at the Nature Valley International tennis tournament in Eastbourne, Great Britain, on Tuesday, June 26, 2018.