There was Anne White's all-white unitard at Wimbledon. Jimmy Connors' sweater vests. Andre Agassi's neon bicycle shorts.

	Associated Press Maria Sharapova removes her wrap, left, to unveil the outfit she wore for her match at the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

But when Maria Shar-apova walked onto center court at the U.S. Open Wednesday night in a little black cocktail dress, complete with beaded crystals and white Nike swoosh, the game of tennis seemed to enter a whole new era of grit and glitz, sweat and sequins.

Even before Ms. Sharapova -- who won both of her matches this week -- wore the "night dress," as she called it at a recent news conference, her sartorial style was getting loads of buzz, spurred by Nike's "I Feel Pretty" ad campaign featuring the Russian tennis star.

In one ad, she is serenaded with the "West Side Story" song by various bystanders before grimly firing off a shot -- clearly a message that pretty and athletic can nowadays be the same thing.

The little black dress "has generated a lot of interest," said KeJuan Wilkins, a spokesman for Nike, who said the frock was stitched together in-house by a team of designers and with input from Ms. Sharapova, who has said recently she's a fan of Audrey Hepburn.

All of this is money in the bank for Nike, since "Maria's obviously someone who captures a lot of attention with a big following among young female consumers," he added.

Indeed, the cocktail dress and the "I Feel Pretty" campaign is a masterstroke of marketing, according to Andrea Fitting, president of The Fitting Group, a Pittsburgh-based branding company.

"Nike is trying to push their apparel, although they're really known for footwear, primarily, so this is a way to make the consumer think about the brand as being not just for feet but for the whole person. Plus, in good marketing, you do things that are different that people can't ignore."

Although, she added, "There is one question that I can't answer. Did the outfit enhance her game or detract from it?"

It's not clear, but Ms. Sharapova wasn't the only one sporting some serious fashion at the U.S. Open this week: Bethanie Mattek wore a sheer, sleeveless, shocking pink outfit, and Serena Williams, who has her own tennis clothing line, appeared in a purple, red and bronze number. Rafael Nadal wore his trademark sleeveless shirts and long baggy shorts.

And it was all fully sanctioned by tennis officials, in contrast to the approbation that rained down on Ms. White in 1985 for showing up in a skin-tight Lycra catsuit.

"It's Show Time!" crowed the ads from the U.S. Tennis Association, featuring various stars decked out in designer duds, adding, for emphasis, "Where High Fashion Meets High Action."

While traditionalists may be mourning the demise of a more restrained, pristine "tennis whites" era, others who have watched the sport's popularity fade during the past two decades seemed delighted with Ms. Sharapova's fashion sense.

"If this helps us sell the game, that's spectacular," said Bob Ruzanic, a past chairman of the U.S. Davis Cup Committee and now a tennis services representative for the United States Tennis Association.

After the glory years of the 1960s and 1970s, when the sport emerged from the elite confines of country clubs and into schools and public facilities across the country, young people are now opting for any number of different outdoor activities, he noted.

"Tennis is in a decline," Mr. Ruzanic said. "The active kid who played tennis then is probably kayaking or mountain biking now."

Plus, it's getting harder and harder to promote tennis to families without means because "public courts in this region are in absolute decay compared to 30 years ago, when you had 30 well-maintained courts in South Park, 20 courts in North Park, not to mention numerous playable courts in the city. Now most of them don't exist or are deteriorated."

So if Ms. Sharapova's decision to wear black on center court prompts her young female fans to take up tennis to emulate her, "that can only make it easier for me to sell the sport to people who don't play it," he said.

Still, Debbie Rosen, owner of Tennis Village, a clothing store in Shadyside, says she doesn't expect black cocktail dresses to become a best-selling item for her longtime customers.

"We sell colors, and brighter things for younger people, but white is still predominant," she said, noting that she doesn't carry Serena Williams' line of revealing tennis clothes. "I just don't think they're appropriate here. Pittsburgh is a conservative town and most of our people can't wear that sort of thing."

But Whitney Snyder, a tennis pro at the Butler Country Club and coach of the boys' tennis team at Sewickley Academy, said he's pleased to see a move toward more athletic-looking, even fashionable, clothing.

"It's good to get away from the country club mentality," he said, adding that he relaxed the dress code at Sewickley this year after strong lobbying by the team's members, "who urged me to enter the 21st century," he laughed.

And while such old-line institutions as the Allegheny Country Club and the Edgeworth Club require whites on the tennis court, he noted, the clothing is no longer the 100 percent cotton, but rather the new "breathable" fabrics which may or may not include -- gasp! -- polyester.

Still, Mr. Snyder draws the line at Mr. Nadal's choice of sleeveless attire. "Basically, he wears muscle shirts. A man wearing a tank top at Wimbledon might as well be out washing his car," he said.

One last bit of local trivia: Ms. Sharapova played one of her first professional tournaments in 2002 in Pittsburgh, at the Oxford Athletic Club in the North Hills, noted Mr. Ruzanic.

"But I don't remember what she was wearing," he said.