The PP Natural Tennis Set is sold as one garment and sized as two. The shirt and the shorts are chosen separately, each from S to 4XL, so a man with a player's shoulders and a narrow waist, or the reverse, takes the size that fits each half of him. It is a small detail of how the set is offered, and it is the right place to begin a guide to it, because fit matters more in linen than in most cloth. Linen has very little give. A tennis set in linen has to be the right size before the first ball is struck.

The set is made up of two pieces from the tennis collection, the PP Tennis Shirt and the PP Tennis Shorts, in the same linen and the same colour. The shirt closes with seashell buttons. The shorts close with walnut buttons, as the men's linen shorts and trousers do. The cloth and the buttons are natural materials, which is the point of the collection's name. Both pieces, and the set, are in the natural tennis collection.

There are five colourways: White, Vanille, Oyster, Oatmeal and Pink. Four of them, White, Vanille, Oyster and Oatmeal, are Belgian linen, the certified Belgian linen that runs through the tennis collection. The Pink set is natural linen, not Belgian linen, and it is described that way here so that nobody has to wonder. The difference is one of origin and certification, not of how the set is made or worn. Readers who want that distinction explained properly will find it in natural linen vs Belgian linen.

How does linen behave on court? Honestly described: it absorbs. Flax fibre takes up perspiration readily, so the cloth does not feel slick against the skin during a long rally, and because the weave is open, air moves through it at every change of ends. A linen shirt will look damp after a hard set, and it dries readily in warm air once play has stopped. It will also crease where it has been sat on. What it does not do is stretch, which is why the separate sizing matters, and why a player between sizes in the shirt should take the larger for freedom through the shoulder on the serve. The subject is treated at length in linen for tennis.

Colour on a tennis court is partly a matter of rules. Some clubs ask members and guests to play in white, and a few define white strictly enough to exclude cream and off-white. Where such a rule exists, the White set is the one to choose, and the club's wording is worth reading first. Where there is no rule, Vanille, Oyster and Oatmeal are the quiet alternatives: soft, pale neutrals that look as natural on clay as on a terrace. Pink is the set for a resort court and for the man who is entirely comfortable being seen from the far baseline.

The set earns its place off court as well, and this is where owning both halves in one colour is useful. Worn together after play, with the shirt open at the neck, it is an outfit for lunch at the club without a change of clothes. Worn apart, the shirt goes with PP Casual Linen Trousers in the evening, and the shorts with any plain linen shirt during the day. The two pieces are also offered singly, the PP Tennis Shirt in White, Vanille, Oyster and Oatmeal, and the PP Tennis Shorts in those four colourways and in Black, Sapphire Blue and Roosewood Pink, for a man who wants to mix them. Each has its own article: the PP Tennis Shirt guide and the PP Tennis Shorts guide.

Care is simple and should be prompt. Wash the set after play, not the next day; perspiration and sun cream left in pale linen are the usual cause of yellowing at the collar and underarm over time. Use a gentle cycle at 30°C, dry the pieces flat in the air and away from direct heat, and iron on the linen setting while the cloth is still slightly damp if a pressed finish is wanted. It is sensible to wash the shirt and the shorts together, so that the two halves soften at the same rate and stay matched in shade. Linen gains softness with each wash, and a tennis set, which is washed often, reaches that state sooner than a shirt kept for evenings.

A man choosing his first set might reasonably begin with White if he plays at a club with rules, and with Oyster or Oatmeal if he does not, since those two show the least of a clay court's dust. The other tennis sets sit beside the everyday PP Natural Set in the natural sets collection. What they have in common is an old idea, that sport can be played in cloth that came from a field, and a detail that makes the idea practical: each half is sized for the man who is wearing it.

Tennis Whites in Natural Fabric  ·  What to Wear to the Tennis Club  ·  The PP Tennis Collection