If you’re a man who appreciates all that a woman can be, you must love the Women’s Tennis Association and everything they wear. These hardworking women spend countless hours toning their thighs, honing their grunts, and dressing up in sweaty, tight duds just to impress us fellas. That’s why they play, right? Of course it is, otherwise how else can you possibly explain the collection of naughtiest professional tennis outfits below?
The Naughtiest Professional Tennis Outfits
Eugenie Bouchard
You’d think this list would have been inspired by the “Nike Nightie” debacle that’s all the rage on the web right now, but I pitched this list weeks ago just hoping my editor would financially enable my regularly planned spandex searches. Still, you gotta include this look for the mere fact that Nike designed a professional tennis outfit that showed so much midriff and undies, it got in the way of their athletes actually advancing. It’s so rare, and downright refreshing, frankly, to see a huge multi-national corporation with their priorities straight. And hey, at least Eugenie is digging it.
Camila Giorgi
Photo: Al Bello (Getty)
Is there an outfit this 24-year-old Italian mare doesn’t make naughty? Or is that actually me making the outfits naughty by thinking about her doing naughty things in them? Since I’m not in the habit of facing the man in the mirror, that’s a philosophical bender for a different day. But one thing I do know is ruffles make everything sexier. Even potato chips. And lace ruffles at that. Plus, her name’s Camila, which is just naughty in the first place; ask Prince Charles.
Serena Williams
Photo: Robert Prezioso (Getty)
When you can crush everybody else on the tour, and beat the snot out of all the meathead writers watching at home, too, then you can wear whatever the hell you want. So God bless Serena for choosing to wear a catsuit at the U.S. Open back in 2002, looking more prepared to be in a Nicki Minaj video than a tennis match. She even wound up winning the title to really complete the fashion statement.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Photo: Clive Brunskill (Getty)
If you’ve got a thing for She-Ra, and if you grew up in the ’80s you definitely do, then you’ll appreciate Bethanie’s solid gold ensemble above. But if you’re more the Sheena Queen of the Jungle type, you’ll probably prefer her leopard-print look. Either way, there’s worse things to be known for than being the John Daly of naughty tennis outfits.
Amandine Hesse
What a brilliant strategy: wearing a tiny skirt with a bunch of holes in it to try and distract your opponent. Now all Amandine has to do is put some of those holes in her shirt and she’ll really get the advantage. I’m sure she would be ranked a lot higher than 177th then, especially if she only had to play straight dudes. But as a consolation prize, she’s top 10 on quite a few “Hottest Female Tennis Player” lists.
Anna Kournikova
So what if she never won a major, or a tourney for that matter, Anna Kournikova won our hearts, officially ended the Cold War (I was a holdout until she came on the scene), and made a boatload of endorsement money doing so. There’s a million naughty outfits of hers, many of which are imaginatively Photoshopped, but the look above takes the naughty cake. Kournikova posted it up on her Instagram for some quality Throwback action, and just to make the outfit even naughtier, she hashtagged it #teenager.
Ana Ivanovic
Photo: Michael Steele (Getty)
Am I the only one who finds this whole ad campaign suggestive?
Caroline Wozniacki
Photo: Anthony Au-Yeung (Getty)
Caroline gives new meaning to the phrase “fist pump” with this outfit. Not sure what that collar is doing, but I can’t be the only one who sees a little BDSM thing there, right? Oh crap, I’m the only one again, aren’t I?
Mandy Minella
I’m a huge fan of Mandy’s body…of work on the tennis court. Actually, I’m a bigger fan of her Instagram account, where we plucked this seductive shot from. Black and white, perfectly out of focus, waning light — all coming together to prove classy and naughty are not mutually exclusive.
Daniela Hantuchova
Photo: Cameron Spencer (Getty)
Very often you can tell how much a pro tennis player likes clothes by what they wear to practice sessions. Judging from the above outfit, I’m guessing the Slovakian who once reached the top five is not a huge fan of obstructing garments. Maybe that’s why my game lacks punch — too many clothes?
Gabriela Sabatini
Photo: ullstein bild (Getty)
Gabriela was the first WTA pro I ever loved. And I swear she knew it, and therefore dressed up extra special for me. Pick an outfit from Gabby’s all-star collection highlighted in this video, and you’ll see why. It’s not that they were all that naughty, as outfits go, or at least they didn’t start that way. But as Gabby inevitably gave it her all, her outfits just got sweated clear through. And since those sweated-through outfits were often white, Gabby’s were always number one, even though her ranking never officially climbed above number three.
