Naomi Osaka has truly achieved fame becoming the number one woman in tennis. The 21-year old now has a Barbie doll in her likeness. So where are the other players in plastic?
At present, the world of Barbie has no other tennis players, but that oversight is covered in wax, almost. Some players are present in the famous Madame Tussauds museums located throughout the world. There is a glaring gap of the players not made into wax figures.
Nadal, Serena Williams, Sharapova, and others…
The current wax standings show Serena Williams with two showings, one in Orlando and one in New York. Rafael Nadal also has two, in Amsterdam and Istanbul.
Only other representations are Maria Sharapova in Tokyo, Li Na in Wuhan, China and Boris Becker in Berlin, Germany. The list of missing is long from Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic to Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova and many others.
… and Andy Murray?
One issue is space. Recently, a Madam Tussauds’ spokesperson had to defend why they had no Andy Murray after winning his second Wimbledon.
“The reason Andy Murray does not currently have a wax figure is not because he is ‘unpopular’,” she said. “We have very limited space in our dedicated sports area here at the attraction and our small tennis set features Rafael Nadal, currently ranked four in the world, and Boris Becker, Novak Djokovic’s coach and former world number one.”
Yes, space is limited, but how about the other figures taking up valuable real estate in the museums. Celebrities such as reality TV star Kendall Jenner, model Cara Delevingne and beauty vlogger Zoe ‘Zoella’ Sugg have characters.
It appears the selection process needs some refining. Madam Tussauds’ needs stars from all areas to attract visitors, but the tennis space has some serious omissions. The current figures deserve their spotlight and nothing should be taken away from them.
Unfortunately, there is not an easy answer because somebody will have been slighted. The cost is probably too prohibitive to rotate and store figures. Maybe museums devoted to just sports would help create space.
So, until a solution comes along to alleviate the shortage of tennis stars in Madam Tussauds’, lighting a candle in a windowsill would seem fitting.
| RAFA |
| Embed from Getty Images |
