Reading: Reading 6: The Business of Tennis Clothes

The business of tennis clothes has grown astoundingly in the past few years. Over $250 million is spent annually on the trapping of tennis. Apparently everyone wants to look like a pro, even though 20% of the clientele has never even played the game.

Manufacturers pay the stars lucrative fees for wearing their brands of clothes and wielding their racquets on center court. Chris Evert-Lloyd, for example, is rumored to have signed a five-year contract for $5 million with Ellesse, a producer of fancy, expensive tennis wear. John McEnroe gets a reported $600,000 for playing with a Dunlop racquet, $330,000 for sporting Tacchini clothes, and $100,000 for typing his Nike tennis shoes. Obviously, in a bad year, these stars make more as fashion models than as athletes.

Not only tennis players get free clothing, but also all the people involved in the game-the referees, linespeople, ball boys and girls-are living advertisiments for tennis wear producers. Where, traditionally; conservative white clothing was required for the entire tennis coterie, changing times have seen a new vogue in tennis outfits. Flamboyant colors, designers' nameplates, geometric figures, and bold lines distinguish the new tennis togs from their predecessors.

** Vocabulary:

- astoundingly
- lucrative
- wielding
- racquets
- fancy
- athletes
- linespeople
- conservative
- coterie
- nameplates
- predecessors