PARIS (AP) — It’s the dirty little secret of tennis players who compete on the kind of red clay being used at the Paris Olympics: Keeping clothes — especially…
It’s the dirty little secret of tennis players who compete on the kind of red clay being used at the Paris Olympics: Keeping clothes — especially white socks — and footwear clean while running around on what’s really dust from crushed red bricks is absolutely impossible.
“The socks are the worst. The clothing is fine. But shoes and socks are the worst. You have to change a lot,” said Elina Svitolina, a bronze medalist for Ukraine at the Tokyo Games three years ago. “After the clay-court season, everything goes into the (trash), and you need fresh ones.”
Svitolina travels with 40 pairs of socks when the tour takes players through a European clay circuit that generally runs from April through the end of the French Open in June. This year, there is a chance for even more lamenting about laundry and white outfits that turn rust-colored: The Summer Games tennis competition wraps up Sunday at Roland Garros, the same facility in the southwest section of the City of Light that hosts the annual Grand Slam tournament.
“I used to think it was cool, the first couple of times I played on red clay — you get your socks all dirty. I was out there trying to get them extra dirty,” Tommy Paul, an American who was a semifinalist at the Australian Open last year and played in the third round in Paris on Wednesday, said with a laugh. “It’s just part of the game. As long as you’re not wiping out in the middle of a match when you’re all sweaty — then it’s all over you.
