Well, Osaka is simultaneously an athlete, fashion collaborator, businesswoman, activist, mother and global celebrity. Superhero? Maybe. <\/p>\n I was lucky enough to watch Osaka at the Madrid Open this spring, striding onto court in a custom Nike dress and baseball visor. From the stands, my son and I bellowed our support during her high-octane contest with Aryna Sabalenka. We love her point of difference and her cause.<\/p>\n Part of that difference lies in how she occupies and owns the court. Like a boxer making a ring walk, Osaka\u2019s arrival has become part of the spectacle itself \u2013 she has turned the walk into a runway. The outfit, the styling and the anticipation all contribute to the performance before a ball is struck. <\/p>\n Yet discussions about Osaka\u2019s clothing often miss the bigger story.<\/p>\n Tennis has always been a performance culture in which clothing communicates status, belonging and authority. French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen<\/a> scandalised audiences in the 1920s with shorter skirts and sleeveless designs. American tennis champion Billie Jean King<\/a> used sporting appearance as part of her broader challenge to gender inequality in the 1970s. <\/p>\n In 2026, we would be forgiven for thinking that some of the more traditional values have been relaxed. Wimbledon has allowed women to wear dark undershorts<\/a> for good reason, so why does Osaka\u2019s sequinned on-court arrival provoke such division, outrage and racist hate?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Historically, Black athletes in women\u2019s sports who used fashion as a form of self-expression often attracted criticism for causing distraction and approaching sport with a lack of seriousness.<\/p>\n Take, for example, record-breaking US track and field athlete Florence Griffith Joyner<\/a>, Flo-Jo. Her one-legged racing suits, long decorated fingernails, elaborate hairstyles and unapologetically glamorous aesthetic challenged assumptions about what elite athleticism should look like. <\/p>\n But they were not random eccentricities; they drew upon longstanding traditions within Black beauty culture where hair, nails and dress function as forms of creativity, identity and self-definition. <\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible to talk about the burden of legend, flamboyance and legacy in tennis without mentioning one of the greatest athletes, icons and sporting performers of all time: Serena Williams. She transformed the visual politics of tennis, forcing a traditionally white sport to reckon with a Black woman as its defining image. <\/p>\n As a young woman, Williams discovered Flo-Jo\u2019s lace and hooded speed suits \u2013 part of her lineage, part of her future legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cI was inspired by Flo-Jo, who was a wonderful track athlete \u2026 when I was growing up,\u201d was the response Williams offered when being probed on the one-legged Nike catsuit<\/a> she wore at the 2021 Australia Open. <\/p>\n The lineage between Flo-Jo, Williams and Osaka \u2013 with their striking sportswear, luxury fashion, activism, global celebrity and desire to challenge the status quo \u2013 points to a longer tradition of Black women using style not as decoration but as cultural authorship.<\/p>\n If Williams challenged who could belong in tennis, Osaka represents a generation asking who gets to define its future image. This is why companies such as Louis Vuitton and Nike invest in Osaka. Not because she wears clothes well but because she embodies a globally marketable story about race, gender, resistance, femininity, identity and youth culture. <\/p>\n Afterall, Osaka is exceptional. A multiple grand slam champion and the first Asian world number one, she belongs firmly within tennis\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n Paying tribute to her multicultural roots, Osaka said last year<\/a>: \u201cMy heritage is my power.\u201d She has forged a complex public image combining influences from Black diasporic culture, Japanese aesthetics, luxury fashion and contemporary celebrity branding.<\/p>\n Constantly challenging expectations of her Japanese identity \u2013 femininity, humility and modest public behaviour, Osaka moves between these worlds with a fluency that reflects the global nature of modern sport itself, negotiating her own cultural identity. Perhaps this is at odds with the traditionally quaint world of tennis.<\/p>\n Misogynoir<\/a> is the sexism that is experienced particularly by Black women. This could explain why expressions of individuality that are commended as innovative in some athletes, such as Roger Federer\u2019s military suit at Wimbledon in 2009<\/a>, are more likely to be treated as controversial \u2013 as the furore around Williams\u2019s outfits has shown. <\/p>\nThe scandalising tennis ring walk<\/h2>\n
Unapologetically Black<\/h2>\n
Who gets to embody tradition?<\/h2>\n
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