Image conscience

They say never discuss politics, religion or sex at a dinner party. Or in some cases: miserable looking tennis players.​

Last Saturday evening, I cooked a curry for a group of friends, and the wine was flowing. Conversation moved on to the Davis Cup result earlier that day. British No.1 Andy Murray has seen Great Britain through to the final at the end of November 2015. Good on him, we agree. We love Andy. All except one.

“I hate him,” a friend says.

“What?”

“He looks miserable. And I hate to say, he’s also pretty ugly.”

I gaped at her. Sure, he’s not the cheeriest of blokes in interview, but look at his talent. He’s No. 2 in the world rankings and the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

“I’m not saying anything about his tennis ability.”

So it’s just his looks then. Shocked as I am, I realize she just demonstrated one critical difference between men and women in tennis. Murray’s looks—loved or hated—will most likely never feature in a discussion about his athletic prowess.

During Wimbledon 2013, Radio 5 Live presenter John Inverdale attributed Marion Bartoli’s playing style to the fact that she was “never going to be a looker” so had to compensate in other ways. Almost 700 people complained, according to the BBC.

Damn straight. Imagine a man being subjected to that. Andy Murray being coached towards a playing style that compensates for his “not being a looker?” It just wouldn’t happen.

The topic of image also flared up at Wimbledon 2015 when Ben Rothenburg of the New York Times published an article on how “Tennis’s Top Women Balance Body Image With Ambition.”

The article discusses how most female players “choose not” to have muscular build like Serena Williams; how Agnieszka Radwanska’s coach “keep[s] her as the smallest player in the top 10 because first of all she’s a woman, and she wants to be woman”; and how Andrea Petkovic “loathed seeing pictures of herself hitting two-handed backhands, when her arm muscles appear the most bulging.”

For the record, I think Petkovic’s arms look fab, but please, it’s 2015. Aren’t we past this? Let’s focus on her extraordinary capabilities as one of the world’s top tennis players. Let’s focus on her as a role model for healthy, motivated and determined young girls. Not how her arms look in photos.

Surely, we’re better than that.