Dubai: For today’s top tennis pros, the lines have become blurred, with chalk marks tainting the cleanliness of the fashion world.Arthur Fils, 21, is ranked 34th on the ATP Tour and was recently signed by luxury fashion brand Balenciaga. The talented Frenchman, who withdrew from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships with a strained hip, spent up to 15 minutes in front of his wardrobe deciding what to wear to dinner.“I take this, this and this, and that combination always works. I’m very simple. I don’t do crazy things,” he told TOI in an exclusive interview, his choices not too different from those he makes on the field. “Tennis is more open now. More new brands are joining the movement and we are also signing up luxury brands. We are invited to a lot of events and now there is more media. “Forehand meets fashion collaboration in the era of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, as global luxury giants enter the athleisure space alongside sports brands. The game’s new icons aren’t just chasing trophies; they’re setting the tone for a generation that sees tennis as a vibe and a lifestyle as much as a grind and a legacy.If the era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic was defined by sculptural perfection, the Alcaraz-Sinner era is about expression.Alexander Bublik, second seed at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, pointed to the issue of age. He is 16 years younger than Federer and more than ten years younger than Nadal and Djokovic. Bublik, 28, was ranked 10th and already on the Tour when Alcaraz, 22, and Sinner, 24, emerged.“For me, it’s about honoring them,” Bublik said of the golden generation. “We are not friends; we are not going to be friends. Carlos and Jannik have a friendly relationship. Carlos is a funny guy, very, very loud. He wears crazy gear, while Jannik has more style and elegance and is ruthless on the pitch.”Noting that times are much cooler now than the golden age of results-driven gaming, Bublik said he even received movie offers back home in Kazakhstan or Russia.Andrey Rublev’s unruly mops reflected his temperament, which he called “a generational thing.”“Every generation has to deal with something,” he said. “Before Roger and Rafa, it was Sampras and Agassi; before that, it was McEnroe and Borg. It was a different era, there was no social media. They were doing more things off the court. In the era of Roger and Rafa, social media started and tennis became more professional.” The players are more closed-minded and super professional. ““Now there’s a new generation, like the TikTok generation, so everything is different,” the 28-year-old Russian said.Fiers admires the unapologetic style of Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton.“Lewis Hamilton has a great style. When he goes anywhere, everyone looks at him because of what he wears; he looks great in it. I love fashion and now I get to wear a lot of cool stuff that I really like. So every time I go out to eat or whatever, I try to wear something cool. “In a sport once defined by whiteness and restraint, self-expression is no longer a sideshow; it’s part of the main event. The new generation is as comfortable with fashion events as it is with striking from the bottom line, unafraid to let personality and performance coexist.For Fiers and his peers, style was not a distraction but a statement. The forehand is still paramount, but fit is increasingly important as well.
