Tennis Special Report: Unusual happenings in tennis
Tennis has always been the most entertaining sport in the world. It has put a lot of smiles on people’s faces through interesting moments and happenings. There have been a lot of exciting events and activities in the game of tennis but sometimes a bunch of whacky things happen too. People come up with strange ideas which simply leave the world in sheer marvel and astonishment.
In the year 1976, the “tennis girl” poster gained popularity around the world. It actually showed a young woman from behind walking towards the net of a tennis court. She held a tennis racquet in her right hand and her left hand reached behind lifting her short tennis dress. It was actually an impression that she was not wearing any underwear.
Martin Elliott took this photograph at Birmingham University, Edgbaston. Martin was a local photographer and his girlfriend Fiona Butler was featured in the photograph. They borrowed the dress, racquet and ball for that particular shoot. The poster “Tennis Girl” was a hugely popular among the youth groups and hanged on the walls of their bedrooms. It was essentially an icon that spread the message of sexual liberation and showed aggression toward the rules and authorities in the early 70. It became a symbolic sign and two million copies of this poster were sold.
In May 2003, a very bizarre kind of tennis match was organised at the Lake Como Nudist Resort in Land O’ Lakes, Florida. It was the first nude tennis match ever in the history of tennis, which was broadcasted live on the internet. The website tennisinthebuff.com had drawn 4,000 hits per day even before the start of the match.
The match organiser Dom Whalen said that, “the purpose behind the webcast is to break the stereotype and promote nudism as a family-oriented thing”. The match was associated with a great risk for the players but the organisers wanted to prove that clothes just hinder the performance.
There are just a small number of people who actually know about the “Tennis Hottie” index by the screensavers.com. The index shows the download rates of screen savers of various featured tennis stars. The celebrity index measures the popularity on the number of screensavers that people download and set on their computers. The Russian Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova have contested for the top spot many a time. The other hot tennis players such as Serena Williams, Steffi Graff, Jennifer Capriati and Sub-Continental Sania Mirza are also featured on the site.
In the succession of events, Roger Federer and Andre Agassi played an amazing match on the helipad at the luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai in 2005. The hotel’s grass helipad was more than 200 meters above the ground. It was converted into a tennis court for the special match between tow most popular players of the world. The pair had a few shots and even let off a few balls out of court.
“This was an absolutely startling experience," Agassi said. "When you first get over how high you are and start playing it's an absolute joy and it was a great time. I had no issues with the height as long as I didn't have to bungee jump off the side."
The pictures of the match were shared among every online network and it was great entertainment for tennis fans.
In recent memory, world’s top ranked tennis players were together at the Haiti Charity matches at the BNP Paribas Open. All the players had to wear the microphone headsets, which offered them an opportunity to chit-chat during the match. Pete Sampras, teamed with Roger and Agassi alongside Rafa on the other side, launched a legendary rivalry.
Some interesting lines were exchanged during the match. "You always have to go get serious, huh, Pete?'' Agassi asked to the glee of an amused crowd.
“I will joke around a little bit,” Sampras responded in a sarcastic tone.
In short, such events are a little un-usual but they are certainly a part of the game.
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