Naomi Osaka Steals Show With Outfit, Entrance and Win

Naomi Osaka has made a breathtaking start to her Australian Open 2026 campaign as the tennis star walked onto the court for her opening match of the Grand Slam wearing a wide-brim hat with a long veil and holding a white umbrella to leave fans stunned at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

Once the buzz had settled on Osaka’s fashion statement on Tuesday, the two-time Australian Open champion stuttered her way to a first-round win over Antonia Ruzic shortly after men’s defending champion Jannik Sinner entered the second round in a contrasting manner against Hugo Gaston.

Osaka waved regally to the crowd, folded up the parasol and neatly put the hat and veil to the side before stepping up for the pre-match formalities wearing part of her pleated outfit on the lower half of her body.

She was back to more or less regular tennis kit for the match itself, which finished with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 scoreline for the Japanese player.

The 16th seed has won two of her four Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open but dropped a set in her first-round match against the 65th-ranked Croatian in the last match of day three on the main show court at Melbourne Park.

She returned strongly in the second set and completed the win in two hours and 22 minutes.

Following her win, Osaka said her outfit was modeled after a jellyfish and the hat was embellished with a butterfly.

“It [the butterfly] has to do with the Australian Open I won in 2021, which I guess is a long time ago,” she said in her on-court interview after the match.

Osaka said that she came up with the design for her outfit.

- Author: Hafsa Adil and News Agencies, Al Jazeera