Tennis Catering to the Lowest Common Denominator

It's a long standing tradition that pre-teens and young teenagers handle the ball hawking duties at major tennis tournaments and matches. These kids chase down the errant shots, and throw fresh tennis balls to the player who's about to serve. It's a nice practice that allows young tennis fans to interact with their idols. But a recent Tennis Masters Series event in Madrid replaced ball kids with female fashion models, ostensibly in an effort to stir up interest. The move succeeded in generating publicity, but at what cost?

Will it be long before tennis video games include gratuitous skin and lingerie modes like the WWE games? Titles like Top Spin would almost surely be cheapened with the inclusion of extraneous skin modes. Sure there's been fawning over the more attractive female players in the past, like Chris Evert, Anna Kournikova, and Maria Sharapova. But its sad that a sport as noble as tennis should stoop to this level.