Tennis Talk

I am a HUGE Wimbledon fan! Not only does everyone dress up, drink Pimms, and eat strawberries & cream, men show off their muscles (& tans) in pearly white outfits whilst teenagers in Ralph Lauren uniforms run around on the floor. I also love the tennis side, but if you don't understand the scoring and couldn't care less that Nadal went out in the 2nd round (only the 2nd round!?!?), there is still a lot of entertainment to be got from the event.

Firstly, the women's matches are entertainment gold! Whilst for me wearing gold hoops for general daywear can be a bit impractical, Serena Williams doesn't seem fazed by wearing diamond hoops whilst playing tennis! I found this blog which has some brilliant fashion shots from the tournament - my favourite is definietly the two sisters in 2008! And whilst running around in a tiny white hankerchief, Sharapova is undoubtedly the most annoying 'grunter' of all tennis players. Except she doesn't even grunt - she literally screams! This video shows some absolute classics...

However, if just commenting on the outfits isn't making you sound like a tennis pro, there are some very basic things that you can do to make everyone believe you are a true Wimbledon fan. Firstly, drink Pimms. With lots and lots of fruit, and preferably in a take away smoothie cup as that's how everyone actually at the games is drinking it! Secondly, learn some lingo. There's a few fail safe phrases that you can slip in now and then to give the illusion of total absorbtion in the Wimbledon World. "He/She should really work on their first serve", "Well, the ball boy didn't see that one coming!" and "Murray could take a leaf out of his book!" are all good ones to slip in, whilst it's a good idea to avoid "That referee is blind!" (it's an umpire), and "They should lower the net a bit." (My mum genuinely said several times in the Murray-Baghdatis match...) Finally, go to your local park with a friend and have a 'match' yourself. This really just means lying in the sun tanning, drinking Pimms and gossiping, although if you want to get up from time to time and wack a ball, that shows true dedication!

So enjoy!! And if you still really can't sit through a whole match and feel like you should be more excited about this event, watch the chick-flick Wimbledon! It's light hearted, funny and has Kirsten Dunst in it, definitely a good compromise :-)