One easy way to spot a pro tennis player is to ask them to take their shoes off! The dead give away sign are the tan lines – on ankles, wrists, thighs, arms and backs. However hard a player tries with the Factor 50 SPF, the lines appear. One of the prices a player has to pay for travelling the world and, for the majority of the time, following the sun.
For the fair skinned it is especially tough as sun screens are not known for their ability to be effective when the wearer is sweating buckets and towelling themselves dry every couple of games. The tournaments held ‘Down Under’ at the start of each year are especially brutal as the UV levels are high and the gaps in the ozone layer are more apparent. Some degree of sun burn or sun damage is unfortunately inevitable.
This tanning dilemma is, in my opinion, so much tougher for the women players. Men can on the whole, cover up when going out to a function or somewhere special, but the ladies on the other hand, want to wear nice shoes and strapless dresses with low cuts at the back. No amount of make up can cover up some of the tan lines on pro tennis players! The resulting look can be quite comical but what can you do! Tan lines are part and parcel of life on the tour!
During the ‘off season’, which for most players is pretty non existent, some players will still go away somewhere warm and sunny, and try and reduce the lines – daring to put on a bikini to try and expose the whiter areas of their bodies, but it’s pretty much a senseless task as within weeks of being back on the tour the lines simply reappear!
It is of concern though as (not so) many years down the line, the signs of all that sun damage will be hugely apparent and the risks of skin cancer developing is obviously high. To counter this and to try to reduce the damage to players, some of the tournaments leave sun screen out for general use, or give samples away to players but is it too little too late? Some players try to cover up with long sleeves and caps etc but players generally like to be able to move freely so extra clothes can be a hindrance to their performance. Then there are your hands. A player can’t really wear gloves during a match so that’s another part of the body that gets hit hard.
So if your player is on the tour, or thinking about going on the tour, encourage them to cover up as best they can, when they can. And remind them to wear a sun block on their lips as burnt lips is extremely painful – speaking from personal experience of course!
#realitytennis
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