Serving Style: How Tennis Remains An Inspiration For Menswear

With the French Open now behind us and Wimbledon just around the corner, tennis fans are gearing up for an exciting few weeks ahead. Whether you’re watching Sinner’s baseline precision or hoping Alcaraz carries his Roland Garros momentum onto grass, one thing is clear: tennis is having a moment. And with its resurgence comes an interest in how to dress on and off the court.

A Gentlemanly Origin

Since its early days in the 19th century, tennis has always put an emphasis on the way players dress. First popular as a leisurely racquet sport among the aristocracy of England, tennis players often wore long trousers, sporty knit vests and even neckties to dress for the sport. Later, white became the de rigueur code for playing (something Wimbledon still adheres to some degree today). While white may have been used to add a bit of uniformity to the sport, more likely it was a cultural signifier to cement class status among players. White signaled cleanliness, leisure and a house filled with staff who could get those pesky grass stains out.

Fast-forwarding to the 1920s and 30s and one begins to see a broader adoption of the sport and, along with it, an even closer relationship between fashion and sport. René Lacoste, for example, is credited as the inventor of the short-sleeved piqué polo, which came to replace the traditional tennis whites among more serious players. That little crocodile emblem signaled a shift for tennis pros: their beloved game—and the inherent style it came to represent—was appreciated by more than just athletes.

The Ever-Evolving Look Of Tennis

If one were to track the progression of tennis style, it would be a jagged line, bouncing between traditional aesthetics and the more technical side of sportswear. Two decades after Lacoste’s polos began to filter into the mainstream, British Grand Slam champion Fred Perry capitalized on his own success in the sport to design the polos which would later become the backbone of his eponymous label. With a slimmer fit and using a more breathable cotton, these wreath-clad shirts became a hit among the country club goers and counterculture mods alike, showing the breadth of tennis’ infiltration into the fashion of its era.

By the 1970s, with more televised coverage of matches, players were no longer just athletes—they were personalities. Björn Borg, with his headbands and ice-cold demeanor, and Arthur Ashe, with his academic cool and understated elegance, became icons whose style outlasted their careers. Their influence continues with Wes Anderson famously drew on Borg’s aesthetic for The Royal Tenenbaums, while Rowing Blazers’ recent collaboration with the Ashe estate to launch the Arthur Ashe brand shows the enduring appeal of his legacy.

As tennis moved into the 1990s and early 2000s, the emphasis shifted. Performance, not panache, became the driving force. Technical fabrics and physiognomic design took precedence over flair. Out went Agassi’s denim shorts; in came compression gear, ventilated panels, and high-tech sneakers designed to shave milliseconds off a serve. Brands like Nike, Lululemon and Wilson led the charge, selling the promise of peak performance—one moisture-wicking shirt at a time.

A Balance Of Style And Substance

Today, tennis style is somewhere in the middle. While on the courts, one is apt to find a healthy mix of poly-blend athleticwear, there is undoubtedly a turn to a more stylish take on this performance style. This is, in part, due to tennis’ rise in popularity over the years. With films like 2024’s Challengers and internet trends that promise hashtag-Old Money, everyday people are picking up a racquet in the hopes of dialing into the elegance that tennis has come to signify over the years.

For Amanda Greeley, owner of sportswear brand Spence, this has meant redefining the concept of “athleisure” in the wider context of tennis’ newfound popularity. “We have entered an era where a lot of us are all kind of dressing “sporty” and this has meant we want to approach the idea of our brand to an audience a bit differently. Athleisure, to me, has a sense of laziness. Instead, we want to get back to the roots of tennis and talk about “sportswear” because that’s a concept that tennis really invented—the clothing you could both run around a court in and then sit and have lunch in afterward.”

Other brands, too, seem to want to bridge this gap between style and performance, showing the two as not total opposites to one another. While the powerhouse brands like Reigning Champ and On have capitalized on the market, there is plenty of room for smaller brands to develop a niche offering for the big-tent nature of racquet sports. Swedishbrands Eton and Tretorn recently partnered on a capsule collection dedicated to the history of tennis, blending elements of classic tailoring and sportswear. Similarly, traditional menswear brand Percival collaborated with Prince Tennis on a limited collection that balanced athletic designs with a menswear lean. Further still, brands like Sease with their runway ready collections or Haus of Brilliance’s tennis bracelet have shown that there is more room than ever for personality and fashion-forward style on the court.

Stay Inspired This Summer

If you’re looking for style inspiration from the sport’s top champions, tune in next week as Wimbledon gets underway. While we may not all possess Borg’s effortless cool or McEnroe’s rebellious edge, tennis continues to prove there’s plenty worth watching—both on and off the court.