THE annual tennis championships start today at Wimbledon, and all over this country clubs and courts will he temporarily deserted in favour of television sets. What viewers are likely to see during the days ahead aside from some good games and bad tempers is a return to rather old fashioned dressing, particularly among women players.
Wimbledon has always been a stickler for rules when it comes to clothing, with an insistence that players must stick almost exclusively to white. Additional colour is allowed only for knitwear or headbands.
This tight dress code has led to some entertaining spectacles in the past: Andre Agassi opting for white lycra cycling shorts under the customary tennis gear in 1991, for example, or Bjorn Borg trimming his white ensemble in pink way back in 1974.
Women, too, have made some strange choices when it comes to bending Wimbledon's rules. Most famously, Anne White wore a white bodysuit in 1985 but was not allowed to do so again.
Don't expect to spot anything as adventurous this season. Lately, both amateur and professional players have been rediscovering the delights of traditional tennis outfits. This trend seems to have started last year, when Mary Pierce wore a sleeveless dress with square neckline at the French Open championships.
The dress was black with white stripes and therefore ineligible for Wimbledon, hut it did mark the start of a movement which has steadily gathered pace since then.
Right now, the dress is back on centre court in part as a reaction against the fondness earlier this decade for clinging separates. A well cut tennis dress or alternatively a skirt and top - looks not just sporty but also fresh and spirited.
All four of the keen amateur players featured on today's page spoke of how much they preferred this style of dressing to wearing shorts; at least two of the women liked what they wore so much that they planned to buy the outfits for themselves - what might be described under the circumstances as a back handed compliment.
There really is no need to skirt the issue; if you want to be a winner on court this summer, make sure you are wearing a dress.