Another week on the ATP World Tour and another batch of kits to dissect. The first clay Masters of 2023 finished with Andrey Rublev taking home his first Masters title and Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek winning the doubles crowns. The setting for this tournament is gorgeous and perhaps that is why I was surprisingly impressed by the bevy of beautiful kits I saw in Monte-Carlo. That’s right kids … there’s more GOOD KITS on this past week’s list because they far outweighed the UGLY KITS. Here’s a look.
GOOD KIT
The champ starts us off and yes, this kit is basic, but it also shows that basic can be beautiful. Andrey Rublev’s Rublo brand has become the antithesis of Nike, his former clothing sponsor. It’s definitely done on purpose after years of Rublev being subject to a parade of putrid kits from the Swooshy shit makers. I get that some may think this is too basic with white, black and grey, but it’s an easy and timeless combination for me. The sleek stripe on the shirt is the perfect thing for me to keep this from being too boring. The shorts are simple and YES Swooshy goons, simple can be GOOD.
BAD KIT
I keep saying it – as long as a player is wearing this Nike garbage, it’s on the list EVERY damn week. Lorenzo Musetti has the blue psycho doodle top from Nike. I’ll at least give him credit for being basic with the shorts that keep this from being too crazy, but I loathe that shirt so much that it doesn’t matter. These kits need to be burned or sacrificed to Vecna so it can go back to hell where it should be housed for eternity.
GOOD KIT
Fila just knows how to do kits. It’s very rare to see a bad one from this brand. Diego Schwartzman’s smurfy blue combo here is sublime for the eyes. It’s got just enough “busyness” to it to keep it from being bland. Playing the shorts off the blue up top is a killer combination for me and the blue hat that compliments the small amount of dark blue in this kit is the icing on the cake. Well done yet again Fila.
GOOD KIT
I think at first glance those of you who have followed me for any time would think I’d probably hate this Adidas kit for Stefanos Tsitsipas. Somehow though, I think this works. I’m hoping he gets to rotate some different shorts into rotation with what I’ve dubbed as the “Two-Face” top because it reminds me of the Batman villain with it’s clean/burned sort of look. The black shorts still work though I think in part because of the headband and wristband of the same color. What I think would really set this kit off for me is maroon shorts to play off the color on the shirt. In the end though, I do like this one despite it’s busy nature. I think Adidas does right by me because they stay away from pairing the top with some equally busy shorts.
That’s it for this past week! Join me on Twitter @tennispig for live kit reviews in Barcelona this week and another edition of GOOD KIT/UGLY KIT next week.
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