The tennis bracelet was initially known as the eternity bracelet or the diamond bracelet. In its simplest form, the tennis bracelet consists of a line of diamonds, the same size, cut, colour, and clarity. It is set side by side to make a complete flexible circle. There are, of course, variations of the classic design. Some feature diamonds of assorted colours and sizes cast in different settings.
The tennis star
Chris Evert, an American tennis star, stopped mid-match in the 1987 US Open and asked the official for time out because the clasp on her diamond bracelet had broken, and the bracelet had fallen off her wrist. She wanted to find it before playing the next point. When asked about the incident by a reporter in a subsequent interview, she referred to her missing piece of jewellery as her “tennis bracelet,” so the name was born. The bracelet in question was a line bracelet set with diamonds by the noted jewellery designer George Bedewi.
It is an anecdotal story, which some people dispute. In particular, Ms. Marion Fasel claims that the term was already around in the 1970s. She contacted Chris Evert’s publicist, who relayed in an email, to verify and confirm her facts. “Chrissie recalls that she was wearing a diamond and gold bracelet, and it broke and fell onto the court in an early round of the Open, and they had to stop play while she looked for it.” Her publicist went on to add that Chris remembers it happening the year the US Open moved from Forest Hills to Flushing Meadows, which was 1978. It seems, however, that whether it was 1978 or later in 1987, the name tennis bracelet was coined by Chris Evert.
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