The US Open is well under way in New York, and for Wimbledon watchers, it takes quite the visual adjustment: the white and green of the world’s oldest tennis tournament are swapped out for hues of American dark blue, punctuated by distressingly un-colour-coordinated players and crowds.
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Aesthetically, it should be a nightmare. But the US Open is proving to be more stylish than ever. On court, it’s certainly serving up more looks than Wimbledon.
The first big look of the tournament came on day two, August 25, when Novak Djokovic rocked up to court wearing a custom white Lacoste jacket with protruding tennis balls on the back. The rear of the jacket featured a map with four tennis balls signifying Melbourne, Paris, London, and New York — for each Grand Slam Tournament he has won.
Then, on August 26, Naomi Osaka introduced the world to an entirely new sentence: she brought a Labubu doll to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Not just any Labubu, but a rhinestone-encrusted red Labubu called “Billie Jean Bling”, which specially matched her blood orange tennis look.
The look was something in itself. Osaka’s dress was made up of a bubble hem skirt and a gemstone lattice top, complete with a matching jacket, which glittered under stadium lights. To top it all off, Osaka had a detachable hairpiece of locks adorned with red roses to match the roses on her trainers.
“It was really elaborate, because the crystals are really hard to do on a performance outfit,” Osaka said of outfit at the time. “I just thought it would be really fun to do a New York under the lights. I’m glad that my first match was a night match, because this outfit was really fun to play. This is my night outfit, so hopefully I’ll wear my day outfit next time.”
Two days later, Osaka got her wish: emerging onto court in a purple version of Tuesday’s rhinestone Nike look, she even debuted a new colour-coordinated Labubu. This one was called Arthur Flashe, after tennis legend Arthur Ashe.
Carlos Alcaraz has also been serving up colourful on-court looks, arriving in aubergine silk-style jackets and playing in all-plum Nike creations. Jannik Sinner, his Waluigi, is playing in the orange version of the same look, cementing Nike’s two key colourways for the tournament.
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This is the name of the game for the US Open. Colour. Wimbledon may be hallowed ground for white-on-green get-ups, but it’s traditional rules make it incredibly difficult for any interesting fashion moments to occur on-court.
Wimbledon is the only Major to require players to wear all-white, a tradition that dates back to the 1880s. Back then, sweat was considered to be improper and unsightly, so white was worn to avoid any sign of sweat patches.
More specifically, players are instructed to be “dressed in suitable tennis attire that is almost entirely white*” and the rules specifically dictate no off-white or cream. The little asterisk allows for “a single trim of colour around the neckline and around the cuff of the sleeves” but it must be “no wider than one centimetre (10mm).”
If Wimbledon stoked our tennis style excitement, the US Open is where brands can take it to the max. Sports-fashion journalist Daniel-Yaw Miller called it “fashion’s biggest US Open yet” in his Sportsverse newsletter last month, explaining: “Tennis is thriving. All of a sudden, everyone wants to cash in on the culture.
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“While the sport’s aesthetic has always been coveted in some ways by luxury brands, from fashion houses to watchmakers, brands of all kinds are now piling in to get a piece of the action.”
The stands have also featured a few well-dressed famous faces, including the likes of Anna Wintour, Rami Malek and Jeremy Allen White, as well as The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Sean Kaufman and Minnie Mills. While there’s no way it’s taking the plate from Wimbledon for its style in the stands, the US Open’s on-court prowess is certainly driving a strong competition. And with all uniform rules abandoned, there’s a surefire advantage. You know what they say: Game, set, match.
All the best looks from the US Open 2025:
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