Tennis Fashion: Expression or Distraction?

Naomi Osaka walked onto the grass at Wimbledon this week in an oversized white ceremonial robe, layered over a tiered skirt, Yonex bag over her shoulder, moving like she was arriving somewhere more significant than a first-round match. It stopped people. Not because it was inappropriate, it was all white, every centimetre of it, fully within the rules. But because it felt like a statement. Like a player deciding that her entrance was going to mean something before she'd even hit a ball.

It got me thinking about an interview last year for the Tennis Channel at Roland-Garros. Zheng Qinwen, headphones around her neck, fanning out a deep red pleated skirt that swallowed half the room behind her. My first reaction was that it was one of the most beautiful things I'd seen a tennis player wear. My second was that it felt like China. Like silk and ceremony and history.

I thought about those terracotta warrior statues the ATP commissioned for the season finale in Shanghai back in 2007, life-sized sculptures of Federer, Nadal and the rest of the field, still standing at the venue today. I thought about what it would mean for one of the best players in the world to walk into a Grand Slam carrying that kind of visual weight on purpose, what it could do for Chinese tennis fans watching on the global stage.

As it turns out, the skirt had nothing to do with China. Nike designed it as a tribute to Suzanne Lenglen, the French icon whose pleated skirts defined the sport a century ago, and Mirra Andreeva wore the exact same one the very next day. Zheng admitted she was too shy to actually wear it on court. But my reaction didn't feel wrong. It felt like exactly what a powerful outfit is supposed to do, make you feel something, pull you somewhere beyond the baseline and the scoreboard. That's the thing about fashion in this sport when it lands. It really lands.

Serena Williams in her black catsuit at Roland-Garros. Osaka in a neon green tutu with ribbons flying. These are moments that stick. They make players feel like more than athletes and give fans something to connect with beyond a tiebreak or a ranking point. In a sport that can sometimes feel locked behind glass, that matters.

Tennis is one of the most tradition-bound sports on the planet. Wimbledon still enforces all-white. The French Federation banned Serena's catsuit outright after 2018, which tells you everything about how seriously the establishment takes the question of what belongs on a tennis court. That tension isn't going away. And it raises a fair question. Where does expression end and distraction begin? Is a dramatic walkout outfit a gift to the sport, something that pulls in new fans and gives players a voice beyond their game? Or does it pull focus from the tennis itself?

I know where I stand. I loved Zheng's outfit. I love that Osaka keeps finding ways to make a walkout feel like an event. Tennis is better for it.

But I want to know what you think. Should players embrace fashion as part of their identity in the sport, or should the tennis speak for itself?

Jake Scudder

Journalist - topics of tennis