Black? Anything but white? Red all over? We asked WTA stars the best color to wear on clay

HIGHLIGHTS: Ons Jabeur, wearing white, defeats Belinda Bencic in the Charleston final

What’s the best color of tennis apparel to wear on clay? It depends who you ask.

“Anything but white,” Shelby Rogers said with a laugh at the Credit One Charleston Open—a green-clay tournament at which the South Carolinian wore a bright blue outfit with pink accents. (“It’ll really pop against the green clay,” she noted.)

“When you serve and the clay kicks up, and you’re sliding around, everything just gets dirty, so white is definitely a no-go if I can help it.”

Fellow American and laundry worrywart Madison Keys agrees.

“Favorite color to wear on clay is anything that doesn’t get stained with red,” said the former French Open semifinalist. “As long as it doesn’t stain and looks clean coming out of the washing machine, I don’t care what color it is.”

Other players aren’t as open-ended with their clay-court clothing choices. Take Jessica Pegula and Ons Jabeur, who both prefer the same color—but that’s where the similarities end.

“I love red, but I’m not sure red and red [clay] will go,” wondered Jabeur. “But my favorite color is red, and if I can wear it then it’s perfect.”

For the American, though, the monochromatic pairing works.

“I wore a red Adidas dress a couple of years ago, and it wasn’t really my vibe,” says Pegula, “but it looked really good on the red clay. So I would say red, it looks good.”

But if contrast is your vibe, Paula Badosa is your player. Two years ago in Madrid, the Spaniard reached the semifinals wearing black—a favorite color of hers that would have popped on red, green or even blue clay.

Since then, Badosa has worn more colorful Nike kits at the Caja Majica, but the results haven’t matched. Could we see a return to black in 2024?

“I love to wear black on clay,” Badosa said of her 2021 run. “Maybe it’s because of that.”