Day Three: Kiss My Ace

With bonofan on decided withdrawal symptoms, it seems I'm the only hand manning the deck right now. A few friendly hints have no effect on him. Am most scorned.

Oh but what a day at wimbleville! Results, you can all check out here, what i really want to talk about today is the fashion.


Some fifty or odd years ago men were still carousing 3-inch shorts with their dandy wood rackets, and air-hair like Agassi's was considered "quite the something". Women wore frumpy old excuses of bags (er, apologies to any readers who still do), and, as much as I love her, even Steffi Graff must regret those horrendous oversized shirts she wore back in her "the day".

Three days into wimbledon, and you could almost feel a visible change in the course of the tides - and mind you, we're not complaining - we like the new Nike air-vented range and the smug splash of color that attempts to defy the wimbledon code of all white, bring it on, we say.

And here are our models for the day:

Here we have Janko Tipsaravic, a tennis player i've been following for quite a while now, and am most dismayed to see him fall out in the earlier rounds of the grandslams to higher ranked players by the smallest of margins, being the best junior in the world at one time. Now the thing i love about Tipsy here is one glance, and you can feel the old matrons in wimbledon choking on their tea: Tipsy is covered in tats (tattoos for the older lot of you)! His underarms, biceps, etc. (basically everything, when you notice during a shirt change) is dotted with tattoo. I was trying to decipher the arm-code of his today, while he smaashed in a set to Roddick, but i'm guessing it's Serbian. And how about those piercings on the face, eh? He Got Jazz.

Bethanie Mattek from the U.S. looked like she gave quite a few gasps to the All-England Board herself: in knee-high football socks and micro-shorts, you could pretty much guess the FIFA theme. Plus those HUGE earrings (not very comfortable to play with, i assume) and a bandana atop! She started with amazing energy in her match against Williams, but unfortunately couldn't keep it throughout the duration of the match. Full marks on the dress though.

such... a.. pretty... so.. much... pretty...

AHEM. Sorry, how'd he get here...

Kirilenko! Hers has to be the most talked about dress this wimbledon: A Stella McCartney design that shows it in the details. Loved, loved it. The double-strapped top down to the layered skort - Heck, kirilenko is rather giving Sharapova a run for her money: do try to get a glimpse of kirilenko's australian open outfit this year, and you'll see that fashion is something that tends to take priority of comfort in the case of the young russian. Too bad we didn't get to see much of this dress though, Kirilenko was outsed in the first round.

Venus Williams, with what seems like beads or glitter glue or just something sparkly on her shoulder. Flower power.

Switching back and forth from Tipsy being tipped over in the third to Nalbandian versus Clement, i thought i noticed something different about clement today - and BAM - he was wearing sunglasses!!??! In a tennis match!??! Whaaa!??!

I sat through a whole set just watching those sunglasses stay on, and ocassional pop off to give the eyes some breathing space, i assume, and then being diligently popped on. So maybe he had, i don't know, an eye infection, a sudden increased sensitivity towards the sun, a new sponsor? Wimbledon News gladly writes how it was, indeed, just a fashion thing, er along with the frequent changes of the bandana from white to red to orange. Yep. All very hip. AND he has a tat on his lower back! AND has grown a goatee (though those are pretty much out of style now). AND he's out in the first round :P

I didn't like sharapova's outfit, for a change. Yes, the australian open "nightie" took a little getting used to, but it grew on us all - but this wimbledon outfit, could have.. been... better? I'm sorry, but do those two cuts in the front of the dress irritate you as much as they do me? And am definitely not "with" the new hairstyle. We still love you, maria.

pretty.... so... much.... pretty....


AHEM.

We must call it a day. Tommorrow's matches include Safin versus Gonzalez (not again!), so please take a minute or two and just, oh i dunno, mutter a little something for the russian. We are much obliged.