LONDON, July 3: Half a century after gorgeous Gussie's knickers sent shock waves through Wimbledon, bottoms are once again the talk of Britain's top tennis tournament.

And they all belong to women.

In a frenzy of new-found interest that has little to do with the women's game, tennis pundits and photographers are poring over female players with a prurience astonishing by even British tabloid newspaper standards.

American ``Gorgeous'' Gussie Moran caused a sensation at the 1949 Wimbledon Championships when she played with lace-trimmed pants peeping out from beneath her dress.

But this was Victorian modesty compared to the sights of 1997. There's a pouting Russian teenager they call Lolita, a leotard-clad French-Canadian dubbed the body and the Belarus beauty, to name but a few.

``Tennis knickers promise to be the smash hit of Wimbledon,'' according to The Express, while the Daily Mail asked: ``This year, will all the talk be about sex and the singles girls?''.

The ``girls'' have seen photographs of their bottoms lined up and judged by the press high scores aside from the odd wobbly midriff and cellulate-dappled thigh -- while the men, true to form, have been allowed to get on with their game.

The tabloids say it's all good, clean-ish fun but many fans are incensed when the female grass game often provides far better rallies than the service-dominated game of today's top men. ``It is appalling the way so much of women's tennis is treated like soft porn,'' said Sports Minister Tony Banks.

Banks, no prude, decried the coverage as ``sexist'' and urged the media to ``concentrate more on women's tennis abilities rather than their underwear and figures.'' Yet when Anna Kournikova took to the court yesterday, attention focused on her black gym knickers and the way she popped balls in and out of the elastic with all the innocence of a 16-year-old dubbed Lolita.

``Kournikova's physical loveliness far transcends mere prettiness,'' said the Evening Standard newspaper alongside a colour picture of the blonde, leggy star shot once again from down low and behind.

``She makes a good action shot. She makes a good still. Basically anything she does makes a good picture because she's so attractive. There are an awful lot of tabloid guys around,'' said one courtside photographer.

``Little Miss Glasnost'' with her pert backside has been the pin-up of the tournament, though Olga Barabanschikova has garnered attention with her pierced navel, skimpy outfits and ``legs as long as her surname''.

She's also very good at tennis. But for many commentators, Wimbledon is more catwalk than Grand Slam.

Take coverage of the No 1 seed, Martina Hingis, who caused a sensation when photographs appeared to show the teenage star playing without knickers and with cellulate wobbling on her super-fit things.

Monica Seles had little choice as she faced endless post-game questions about her weight gain and cruel comparisons to ``a hag with a frying pan''.``This is not a story about buttocks, really, or the curve of a thigh or the flip of a tennis skirt,'' said the Liberal Guardian newspaper.

``It is a story about power, about an attempt to diminish the power of women who can hit a ball hard enough to knock a male commentator's head off. Of course young, fit women are sexy. But what they are doing in front of you is playing tennis, gentlemen, not lap-dancing.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.