Naomi Osaka arrived on Court Suzanne Lenglen in a black corset and a cascading pleated skirt, revealed a shimmering gold tennis dress beneath it and beat Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in the first round to reach the second round at the French Open.
The 28-year-old, a four-time Grand Slam champion, turned a routine win into a moment that outshone the scoreboard. The gold dress was custom made by Nike while the black outer pieces were designed by Kevin Germanier, and Osaka chose the reveal as part of her pre-match entrance on one of Roland Garros’s show courts.
On the court afterward she framed the look in a simple image: "Funny enough, you know the Eiffel Tower at night when its sparkly? I think I look like that a little bit." She said, too, that the first impression of the set-up was immediate: "When I first saw it, I felt like I look like the Eiffel Tower at night time when it's bright."
The result was the point that mattered: a straight-sets win, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), that moves Osaka into the second round of the 2026 tournament. The French Open has not been Osaka’s most successful major — she has not gone beyond the third round in Paris and last reached the third round at Roland Garros in 2019 — so the match win was also a small but necessary return to form at a venue where she has unfinished business.
Osaka tied the fashion choice to the players she watched growing up and to the wider theater of Grand Slams. "Sometimes people say athletes are in show business or entertainers or whatever, For me, Grand Slam walk-ons are the only time that I possibly feel like I'm an entertainer," she said, putting the outfit and the moment in a personal frame rather than a publicity stunt.
The moment contained a friction point: the very shine that made the dress a spectacle almost kept it from being worn. Osaka admitted she worried the reflection would be a problem with match officials. "Then I actually got a little worried because when the sun hits the dress, it reflects a lot, so I was a little scared the umpire was going to kick me off the court," she said, adding that she had contingency plans: "I got two back-up, normal dresses - thankfully I didn't have to wear them."
Other players noticed. Aryna Sabalenka praised the look on the walk to court: "This is sparkling. I love it. I love that she is expressing herself and feels confident." Sabalenka added, "That's the beauty of the fashion world, there's space for anything and I love that she's bringing it on court."
The risk and the reward collapsed into a single afternoon: Osaka’s fashion choice drew attention, but the match result kept the story about tennis rather than theatrics. She leaves Court Suzanne Lenglen as a player who advanced and as a contender who appears ready to use both tennis and presentation to shape her next rounds at Roland Garros.
