Naomi Osaka survived a major scare to win her opening round match at the 2026 Australian Open after she made a fashion statement with her entrance that left fans and pundits stunned.<\/p>\n
The two-time Australian Open<\/a> champion, who is seeded 16th, prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against world No 65 Antonia Ruzic in two hours and 24 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n Osaka<\/a> looked in danger of suffering a sizeable upset when she was down a break at 3-4 in the deciding set, but she won the last three games to book her spot in the second round.<\/p>\n The Japanese superstar walked out onto Rod Laver Arena wearing a spectacular outfit, with a white veil, hat, umbrella, skirt and pants added to her turquoise and green Nike top.<\/p>\n In her on-court interview after beating Ruzic, Osaka explained that her outfit was jellyfish-inspired, and that she had designed it in collaboration with the fashion designer Robert Wun.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, so actually, Nike let me design this one,\u201d said the former world No 1.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s modelled after a jellyfish. Yeah, I\u2019m just so grateful that I get to be able to do the things that I love and yeah, it\u2019s really beautiful. And shout out Robert Wun for doing this for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Naomi Osaka\u2019s Australian Open outfit labelled \u2018iconic\u2019 and \u2018a contradiction\u2019 by Boris Becker<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Former world No 1 reveals her wish for \u2018smart and ambitious\u2019 Iga Swiatek<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n The four-time major winner also revealed that the hat and umbrella were influenced by a moment a butterfly landed on her face at the 2021 Australian Open.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a butterfly on my hat and on the umbrella too. And it has to do with the Australian Open that I won in 2021, which I guess is a long time ago,\u201d the 28-year-old added.<\/p>\n In an interview with Vogue<\/a>, Osaka explained that her two-year-old daughter, Shai, had inspired the outfit with her reaction to a jellyfish in a book.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an image of a jellyfish, and when I showed it to her, she got so excited,\u201d Osaka said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt translated beautifully into the movement and fluidity of the sheer layers on the dress and the jacket.\u201d<\/p>\n Former British tennis stars Laura Robson, Tim Henman and Anne Keothavong reacted to Osaka\u2019s walk-on outfit on TNT Sports.<\/p>\n Laura Robson: <\/strong>\u201cWow, I mean I love it. This is a moment. It\u2019s a vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n Tim Henman:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m not qualified to comment. Wow\u2026 I am speechless.\u201d<\/p>\n Anne Keothavong:<\/strong> \u201cShe\u2019s making a statement, isn\u2019t she? I\u2019ve never seen anything quite like it. That is the ultimate walk-on.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the Australian Open on Eurosport, TNT Sports, HBO Max and discovery+<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Osaka will play world No 41 Sorana Cirstea in the second round at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Iga Swiatek\u2019s tactics questioned by ex-stars after opening round Australian Open win<\/a> The post The meaning behind Naomi Osaka\u2019s Australian Open outfit that stunned fans and pundits<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Naomi Osaka survived a major scare to win her opening round match at the 2026 Australian Open after she made a fashion statement with her entrance that left fans and pundits stunned. The two-time Australian Open champion, who is seeded 16th, prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 against world No 65 Antonia Ruzic in two hours and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What has Naomi Osaka said about her outfit?<\/h2>\n
Australian Open News<\/h2>\n
What did pundits say about Naomi Osaka\u2019s outfit?<\/h2>\n
Who will Naomi Osaka play next at the Australian Open?<\/h2>\n
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