Womens Tennis Shorts Today Are Comfortable, Stylish & Have Ball Pockets For Convenience

There's a stylish alternative to dresses and skirts if you want to add a little zing to your tennis wardrobe. Womens Tennis Shorts make fashionable tennis alternatives for many of the top women players, like Venus Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Kirilenko and even tennis dress queens, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic. Many more women tennis players use womens tennis shorts for ease and comfort in their practice games.

There's really only one drawback to them - you're derrier must be in good shape. Any lumps and bumps that might be hidden by a tennis skirt will be exposed. Equally though, if you are blessed with a first class rear, womens tennis shorts will allow you to make the most of your assets and enhance your look on court.

Many have inner shorts attached so you won't have to worry about tennis underwear and also tennis ball pockets, making them as practical as any tennis skorts.

Tennis Shorts For Women By adidas Look As Good As Any

Two of the women mentioned above, Ana Ivanovic and Maria Kirilenko are both sponsored by adidas, and luckily for them, adidas make some of the most attractive tennis shorts available online, as pleasing on the eye as any of their tennis skirts or tennis dresses.

The adidas Barricade Women's Tennis Shorts (below left) are tennis specific shorts, with internal undershorts that keep you decent at all times and which have handy tennis ball sized pockets to allow your smooth transition between first and second serves.

The elastic waistband and adidas' own movement promoting Formotion fabric technology, should mean you hardly notice you've got them on.

The First Appearance Of Women's Tennis Shorts

It took 'till the early 1930s before the world was ready for the first appearance of women's tennis shorts.

Maria Kirilenko Shows Off Her Women's Tennis Shorts Thanks to CE Whelton @ Flickr

Daring young women had pushed the boundaries of allowable tennis attire every decade or so, from the full length layered tennis dresses and elaborate tennis hats of the 1880s, to less and less material.

In 1931, Lili de Alvarez wore a divided skirt that hung just below knee level. Two years later, Alice Marble, the first woman to play an aggressive serve and volley game like a man, wore tennis shorts that bared the knees.

Tennis Royalty Divides Over Tennis Shorts For Women

As is the nature of things, women's tennis shorts were opposed by men and women on their introduction. Tennis players, Helen Wills and Helen Jacobs were not keen, and ardent tennis player, King Gustaff of Sweden expressed his disapproval. They were even banned from public places in Chicago!

Another tennis playing Royal, the Prince Of Wales, (later King Edward VIII), weighed in on the opposite side of the arguement. He saw no reason why women shouldn't wear them, saying they were comfortable and 'quite the most practical costume for the game'.

By 1935, womens tennis shorts had all but won the arguement with many active women quite happy to wear them. Realizing they were here to stay, some governments tried to at least make their length more 'respectable' as in Bermuda. This is how the now famous Bermuda Shorts first saw light of day.

Womens Tennis Shorts - Still A Slightly Rebellious Option?

Ironically, the Second World War had a part in ensuring women's tennis shorts were here to stay - at least in Europe that is. The battered economies of European countries took years to recover, and traditional tennis textiles just weren't available. This situation in part allowed Joan Lycett to play with bare legs and tennis socks, much as players wear today.

Even as late as the 1950s, women's tennis shorts were upsetting more conservative authorities around the world: Shortly after scandalizing Wimbledon with her short dress with lace-trimmed knickers, Gussie Moran again got in trouble for her black tennis shorts when playing in Egypt.

Women's Tennis legend, Billie Jean-King had problems as late as 1955. by wearing tennis shorts when trying to pose for a photo with junior tennis players, instead of the expected tennis skirt. She was prevented from having the picture taken!

Women's Tennis Shorts Today

Nowadays, women's tennis shorts are acceptable tennis apparel even at Wimbledon, but women's tennis shorts can still make a tennis style statement. Maria Sharapova wore a particularly avant garde tennis outfit a few years ago which was very feminine but hinted at the masculine. She wore matching tennis shorts with a tuxedo style tennis top.

Nearly all new tennis shorts for women have the gamut of today's leading edge textile technology, including protection from harmful sunrays, antimicrobial treatments, flat seam stitching to prevent chaffing, mesh areas for ventilation, wicking and fast drying fabric, and of course internal tennis ball pockets.