PARIS – Naomi Osaka keeps bringing the fashion in Paris.
For her walk-on before a second-round win at the French Open, the tennis star wore a metallic gold bomber jacket over her sequined gold playing dress, offset by an ivory train in a look that mixes sportswear with couture.
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“The inspo was, I don’t want to say Victorian, but you know the ladies that have the dresses with the poof in the background?" Osaka said. “(It's) so terrible of me to not know the correct term of that.”
The term Osaka was looking for is likely bustles, which were padded undergarments used to add fullness to dresses in the mid to late 19th century.
After the walk-on, Osaka took off the train and jacket and handed the garments to a ball kid to remove them before the match against Donna Vekic on Court Simonne-Mathieu on Thursday.
“I like to keep people on their toes and I think it’s really fun,” Osaka said in her post-match interview on court, refusing to reveal if she has a new outfit for every possible match of the tournament. “There’s a community I feel like that’s been built over my on-court outfits. So I just like to just keep you guys guessing.”
Osaka won 7-6 (1), 6-4 to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the first time since 2019.
“It means a lot,” she said. “I just feel so grateful. It’s another milestone.”
For her opening match two days earlier, Osaka walked on in a ceremonial black skirt and sleeveless beaded bodice before revealing her gold dress, which she said reminded her of the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night.
“Athletes are in show business,” Osaka said after beating Laura Siegemund in her opener. “Grand Slam walk-ons are the only time that I possibly feel like I’m an entertainer.”
Osaka's opponent says walk-ons ‘problematic’
Siegemund said Osaka’s walk-ons were “yet another example of big names being treated differently” in tennis.
Siegemund told Eurosport Germany she didn’t mind the outfits but found it “a bit problematic” that it took Osaka so long to get ready and lesser-known players were under pressure to unpack their gear as fast as possible to avoid time violations.
“I came here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show," Siegemund added after losing to Osaka. "If other people want to do a fashion show, they can do that. It’s fine for me.”
Vekic had no issues.
“It’s just something different,” Vekic said. "Some people take tennis way too seriously. Just relax. It’s just an outfit. It’s no big deal. She has an opportunity to do that so why not.”
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AP Fashion Writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis