Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Great Tennis Jewelry Mystery.

Here's the question: why do they call it a tennis bracelet?

This answer is simple: because women's champ Chris Evert was wearing one in 1987's U.S. Open; the bracelet's clasp broke and the match was halted until the jewelry was retrieved. And the world looked at that bracelet and went, "Neat." So all thin strings of in-line diamonds in a regular pattern became known as tennis bracelets. Fair enough.

The corollary: why do tennis players wear so much jewelry? Every time I come across matches on the teevee, the women are wearing earrings, necklaces, and so on. Seems to me -- a former basketball player -- that putting something expensive and fragile on an athlete in play is kind of, well, silly. Possibly dangerous. I even looked up the ITF dress code from 2006 (the only one I could find online) to see what it said about jewelry -- most unhelpfully, there was nothing.

I remain puzzled.

2 comments:

Timothy said...

Indeed! Thanks for sharing... One more of life's little mysteries solved.

I have my grad apps due tomorrow... I havent finished... I am being very lazy right now.
I also have that paper rewrite for publication due on the 16th.... also being very lazy... honestly, I dont know what it is... I think i'm being weighed down by all of it.

Mo said...

I just discovered your blog not too long ago, and I just wanted to let you know I think it's great. I especially enjoyed your commentaries on history and art. Keep it up! :)