LONDON: Field no. 2 is located at one end of the All England Club, a few hundred meters from the players’ facilities. For Naomi Osaka, it simply meant a longer runway. The four-time Grand Slam winner arrived in a stripped-back kimono-inspired look on Wednesday, complete with an accessory both which trailed behind her as she walked.On a day when her tennis proved to be as sharp as her fashion, Osaka outlasted world No. 225 Anastasia Gasanova, firing eight aces in a 6-3, 6-2 win to reach the third round of Wimbledon. The 28-year-old Japanese woman will now fight for a place in the last 16 of the Championship when she faces Australian Daria Kasatkina on Friday.After the throw, Osaka unclipped both before shedding her floral-applied bomber jacket to reveal an intricately crafted tennis dress with a rounded, micro-pleated hem. It was the latest chapter in her Wimbledon wardrobe after she arrived at Monday’s first-round match in a kimono richly designed with embroidered cranes and cherry blossoms.The thing about fashion is that while it can attract attention, it can’t move the traffic light. And significantly, it creates expectations.In tennis, a bold statement can command as much attention as admiration, and players are judged as ready to dare to stand out as they are by what they wear.As Osaka walked past the crowd for her first-round match, she could hear “whoahs” coming through her headphones.The 28-year-old may not be plagued by doubts, but she is not immune to the noise inside and outside the dressing room. 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 hit. After that, the clothes disappear and only tennis remains.“I feel a little nervous,” she said. “So I kind of want to get used to that feeling so much that it doesn’t bother me anymore. I think I threw myself on my head at the Australian Open with an umbrella, hat and everything.”This willingness to be in the spotlight is what sets Osaka apart. American sixth seed Taylor Fritz, who arrived for his first-round match wearing an all-white jacket and pants over tennis clothes, acknowledged the weight a player carries when he enters tennis.Fritz said: “You show up in full clothes and a suit and in the first round, you look really stupid.”“I saw him come out. 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 his early trips to Japan, 14th the seed — an introvert by nature — hit Harajuku. A lively pedestrian-only district in Tokyo that is synonymous with the capital’s youth culture.“In Harajuku, I saw how everyone expressed themselves through clothes. It was so cool and colorful. I liked that and used it in my fashion experimentation,” she said. A few summers ago in New York, Harajuku influences shaped her elaborate outfit for the US Open. In January at Melbourne Park, she walked the court wearing a wide-brimmed hat under a blush veil and carrying a white parasol, turning the walk into a catwalk in a way few athletes before her had attempted.The walk to the court may take a minute or more, but for Osaka, this is where risk, identity and performance begin.
