The Right to Bare Arms at the U.S. Open
Never has men’s tennis seen a bigger match with fewer sleeves. On Tuesday evening at the U.S. Open, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, two captivating young Americans vying to be tennis’s next big thing, are set to square off.
Expect to see Tiafoe’s acrobatic two-handed backhand, Shelton’s decimating 149 mile-per-hour serve and one thing the two young Americans have in common: bicep-baring tank tops. The 25-year-old Tiafoe, 20-year-old Shelton and Spain’s 20-year-old prodigy Carlos Alcaraz have charged through the competition thus far at the Open wearing conspicuous “check out these guns" sleeveless tanks as if plucked from Venice Beach. That means three of the eight men’s quarter finalists at the Open have arrived there sans sleeves.
The he-man tanks do allow fans, and crucially, reedier competitors, to clock just how jacked these young guns are. Tennis historically hasn’t been a sport for the absolutely diesel. Consider past titans like Roger Federer and Pete Sampras.
Were they fit? Oh, absolutely. Would they get mistaken for a Tennessee Titans tight end? Not quite. Big Foe (as he is known) and Shelton very well could.
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