LONDON: Court No. 2 sits at one end of the All England Club, a few hundred metres from the players’ facilities. For Naomi Osaka, that simply meant a longer runway. The four-time Grand Slam champion arrived on Wednesday in a downsized kimono-inspired look, accessorised with an obi that trailed behind her as she walked.On a day when her tennis proved every bit as sharp as her fashion, Osaka powered past world No. 225 Anastasia Gasanova, firing eight aces in a 6-3, 6-2 win to reach the third round at Wimbledon. The 28-year-old Japanese will now bid for a place in the last-16 of the Championships when she faces Australia’s Daria Kasatkina on Friday.After the toss, Osaka unclipped the obi before shrugging off her floral-applique bomber jacket to reveal an intricately crafted tennis dress with a curved, micro-pleated hem. It was the latest chapter in her Wimbledon wardrobe after she arrived for her first-round match on Monday in an elaborately designed kimono embroidered with cranes and cherry blossoms.The thing about fashion is that while it can turn heads, it cannot move the scoreboard. And significantly, it creates expectations.In tennis, a bold statement can draw as much scrutiny as admiration, and players are judged as readily for daring to stand out as they are for what they wear.As Osaka walked past the crowd for her first-round match, she could hear the “wows” through her headphones.The 28-year-old may not be consumed by doubt, but she is not immune to the noise from the locker room and beyond. Whatever story she chooses to tell through fashion is ultimately amplified by her tennis. Every walk-on is a fashion show until the first ball is struck. After that, the outfit disappears and only the tennis remains.“I do feel a little bit of nerves,” she said. “Also I kind of want to make myself so used to that feeling that it doesn’t bother me anymore. I think the Australian Open was me throwing myself head first into it with the umbrella and the hat and everything.”That willingness to lean into the spotlight is what sets Osaka apart. American sixth seed Taylor Fritz, who arrived for his first-round match in an all-white blazer and trouser combination layered over his tennis clothes, admitted to the weight a player carries when making such an entrance.Fritz said, “you show up in a full outfit and get snipped in the first round, you look really stupid.”“I saw his walkout. I thought it was pretty cool,” Osaka said of Fritz.Osaka, whose daughter Shai turns three on Thursday, is of Japanese and Haitian descent and grew up in Florida.On one of her early trips to Japan, the 14th seed — an introvert by nature — was struck by Harajuku. A vibrant, pedestrian-only district in Tokyo that is synonymous with the capital’s youth culture.“In Harajuku I saw everyone expressing themselves through clothes. It was so cool and colourful. That stuck out to me and I used that in my fashion experimentation,” she said. A couple of summers ago in New York, Harajuku influences shaped her elaborate US Open outfits. In January at Melbourne Park, she walked on court wearing a wide-brimmed hat beneath a blusher veil and carrying a white parasol, turning the walk-on into a catwalk in a way few athletes before her have attempted.The walk to the court may last a minute or more, but for Osaka, it is where the risk, the identity, and the performance begin.
