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77. CLEAN CLOTHES PLEASE!
Tennis players are constantly on the move and there is a limit to the amount of kit they can carry so one of the most frequently asked questions at tournament venues (speaking solely from experience of womens events), is ‘where is the nearest laundrette?’ Unlike the players at the top end of the tennis tour, the majority of players cannot afford to get their kit laundered at their hotel and to be honest, not many 2/3 * hotels offer such a service anyway, so it is the local laundrette that gets the custom!
If the tournament is in a hot country and the accommodation has a balcony then some players will choose to wash their own clothes and hang them out to dry, but if there is a laundry nearby then that’s where you will find many players during their time off court. It’s a sharp learning curve for players who are new to the tour with many having to visit a laundrette for the first time in their lives, but it soon becomes a routine exercise during each tournament week – find a laundry then sit and watch the washing go round for a couple of hours! After all, there is a limit to the amount of clothes you can pack and the number of times kit can be worn before a wash is required – especially during the clay court swing when kit gets very dusty and stained as well as sweaty!
Some tournaments (typically on the WTA tour) offer a laundry service which is usually quite affordable. The players bring their bag of dirty kit to the club and it is returned next day clean and fresh smelling. On the ITF tour however, there is no such luxury and it is either hand washing, or a local laundrette or laundry service. The players do however, take a risk as it is not guaranteed that all the kit will come back or if it does, not all the kit that is returned may belong to the player concerned, as let’s face it, the person who does the laundry has no clue what belongs to who! So a detailed list of the items handed in is always advised! If the player does do the laundry themselves then try and spot the rookie who has put all the kit in together (colours and whites) and has ended up with a lot of light grey or pastel pink socks, or the player who didn’t read the care label and has to wear kit several sizes too small as a consequence of using a tumble drier that was too hot!
This is the reality – life on tour is not all nice hotels and people doing all your chores for you – laundry is high up there on the weekly task list before a player moves on to the next competition and is another cost item to be included on the extensive budget sheet.
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