There have been undoubtedly some notable outfit and accent selections in final 12 months’s play, too (see: Jessica Pegula’s armpit cutouts, Sloane Stephens’s delicate diamond necklace, or Marta Kostyuk’s neon-yellow gown), however Naomi Osaka’s big “Brat”-green bows emerged because the undisputed champion. Going into the primary spherical of the 2024 Open, Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion (and two-time US Open winner), confirmed as much as play Jelena Ostapenko sporting a bow-covered bomber jacket, frilly inexperienced skirt, and matching tennis gown—a custom-made, cottage-core-y collab between Nike and the Japanese designer Yoon Ahn. Even her headphones, sneakers, and tennis bag have been adorned, too.
When requested in regards to the distinctive look in her post-match interview, Osaka described it as “maximalist” and stated it was impressed by Harajuku fashion. Within the second spherical of the match (which led to a loss to Karolina Muchova), she debuted a black model of the identical getup. Chatting with The New York Occasions, she defined that dressing up helps increase her psychological well being. “Once I put on what I really feel is an efficient outfit, I undoubtedly really feel extra comfy,” she stated.
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6. The place do the opponents—specifically ladies in skirts—put their tennis balls throughout play?
Talking of tennis skirts, if you happen to’ve ever donned one earlier than, you most likely already know the reply: There are discreet little pockets in most clothes that may maintain a couple of balls. Nonetheless, as SELF’s health director, Christa Sgobba, has complained previously, “Our tennis uniforms in highschool did not have pockets!” (So secure to say it’s not a common requirement!)
7. So why is Wimbledon’s gown code so freaking strict?!
Get able to roll your eyes up to now again into your head that they develop into completely lodged there. In an interview with BBC Tradition from 2023, Robert Lake, creator of A Social Historical past of Tennis in Britain, stated this: “White hides sweat the very best, seems to be clear, sharp, and tidy, representing goodness (aesthetically) and, given cricket connections, additionally displays upper-middle-class leisure traditionally.” (BRB, making a psychological word to look at this 12 months’s Open sporting my tackiest, most colourful Spandex outfit in a foam Statue of Liberty hat with Cowboy Carter streaming within the background.)
8. Do US Open opponents win prize cash?
Whereas the 2024 Open boasted the most important money allotment for gamers in match historical past ($75 million, a 15% improve from 2023), the 2025 occasion units the bar even increased: $90 million. The boys’s and girls’s singles champs will obtain $5 million apiece, a rise of virtually $1.5 million from final 12 months’s $3.6 mil. In response to Brendan McIntyre, the senior director of company communications for the US Open, all 4 Grand Slam occasions supply equal prize cash for women and men. Nevertheless, the US Open was the primary to make that decision (thanks in no small half to the efforts of tennis legend Billie Jean King and different activists), all the best way again in 1973.
However it’s not simply the victors who take house a examine: Second-place winners earn $2.5 million, semifinalists earn $1.26 million, quarterfinalists earn $660,000, and so forth. Even athletes who lose within the first spherical get just a little (or not-so-little) one thing: $110,000. (Not unhealthy!)
9. Do followers should be quiet throughout US Open matches?
The Open’s extra informal look compared to different massive tennis tourneys is mirrored in its total angle, too—the Arthur Ashe Stadium will get famously rowdy. “It is the loudest and doubtless probably the most humid situations of all heart courts of all 4 Grand Slams,” Novak Djokovic instructed reporters throughout a press convention in 2023. That 12 months, the Open welcomed 957,387 followers again for the 20-day occasion, an 8% improve in attendance from 2022—and people folks prefer to get together, typically to the gamers’ frustration. On the 2022 match, Australian Nick Kyrgios claimed {that a} spectator smoking weed triggered his bronchial asthma signs to kick in.
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