Style icon Naomi Osaka has sent the tennis world into meltdown following her sensational entrance for her first round match against Antonia Ruzic at the Australian Open on Tuesday.
The Japanese tennis star turned heads as she entered Rod Laver Arena wearing a long turquoise ‘jellyfish’-inspired tunic, complete with a white pair of crimped trousers.
Osaka also wore a white broad-brimmed hat, which had a large white butterfly attached to its top.
She also carried a white parasol, from which a transparent white veil trailed behind her.
It was a picture of elegance, with the crowd inside the Rod Laver Arena cheering wildly for the four-time Grand Slam champion, who has revealed that the outfit was inspired by a children’s storybook.
The 28-year-old revealed to Vogue that she had been reading a story to her two-year-old daughter, Shai, when she happened upon the idea for the elegant, flowing fit.
The book had featured an image of a jellyfish, with Osaka telling Vogue: ‘When I showed it to her [Shai], she got so excited.’
The outfit was designed by Robert Wun, a Hong Kong-born, London-based fashion designer, who has made pieces for Ariana Grande, Beyonce and Cardi B.
‘It translated beautifully into the movement and fluidity of the sheer layers on the dress and the jacket,’ Osaka said to the outlet.
She perhaps couldn’t have been more correct. After removing her hat and carefully placing it on top of her chair, the world No 17 began to put on a turquoise jacket that matched her ‘jellyfish’ tunic.
Designed in collaboration with her apparel partner Nike, the jacket featured an ocean colourway that had little threads of green fabric appearing to dangle from it.
As she warmed up, Osaka appeared to gracefully flow around the court, sweeping away ground strokes, much to the delight of both the fans and pundits inside the 15,000-capacity stadium.
‘Wow,’ Tim Henman told TNT Sports. ‘This is quality.’
Osaka had also appeared to have left her bag on her chair prior to her entrance, with TNT pundit Laura Robson, also being left speechless.
‘Wow,’ the former British star said. ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like it. That is the ultimate walk on isn’t it?
‘The hat is kind of like a Beyonce formation moment.’
Osaka turned heads at the US Open last year, notably warming up in a lime-green outfit that had featured a silk bow on her back. She had also donned a green, tiered skirt.
The two-time Australian Open winner paired the outfit with green and white Nike trainers that had a green bow pinned to the heel.
At Roland Garros last year, Osaka donned a bright pink dress and had placed her hair into two buns that featured ‘flower’ hair ties.
Roland Garros commented on a viral video of the Japanese star: ‘Osaka’s outfits never miss.’
Speaking to Vogue, Osaka, who won here in 2019 and 2021, stated that she wanted to use the opportunity to emulate tennis stars of years gone by and make a statement.
‘When I look back at the players who came before me, I think about how those moments—those looks—have become memories that live forever,’ she told Vogue.
‘So much of the time, other people get to write our stories for us. This felt like a moment where I could write a little bit of my own.’
Osaka has struggled to rekindle her form of old since the Japanese star took a hiatus from the sport in 2023 while she was pregnant.
She has won once on the WTA Tour since then, notably winning WTA125 in Saint Malo in April of last year, having also reached the finals of the Auckland Classic, and WTA1000 in Montreal.
Osaka found a vein of form at the end of 2025, reaching the semi-finals of the US Open, besting Daria Kasatkina, Coco Gauff, Karolina Muchova before being knocked out by Amanda Anisimova.
She comes into the Australian Open as the No 16 seed and started brightly against her Croatian opponent, breaking Ruzic in the eighth game to go 6-3 up in the first set.
Ruzic fought back, saving a late break point in the ninth game of the second set to level the match at one set apiece.
Bizarrely, the match was halted for around 10 minutes after a red light on the net posts would not turn off.
The light flashes red when a ball lands out of play but the players were left awkwardly waiting around as the light would not turn off.
More to follow…
