Osaka’s fashion show takes center stage at US Open

NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka put down a forceful 6-3, 6-2 first-round effort over Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday, but in her post-match press conference fashion questions ran a close second to actual tennis questions.

That’s because, after a week of unbridled buzz among tennis fashionistas, Osaka brought her frilly, fantastic Yoon Ahn-designed lime-green Nike ensemble to the court at the US Open.

“Yoon is so nice,” Osaka said after her win. “She accepted doing this project, and we’ve kind of been talking about it for a few years now. So just to be able to wear it and see it come to life and see that people are excited to see it, yeah, it’s really cool.”

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As she was dressing in the locker room, Osaka thought to herself, “Ah, I hope this isn’t too much.”

She walked on wearing a layered outfit that featured a white tutu with a large lime-green bow, which she discarded midway through warmups. The match kit was impressive, if not exactly aerodynamic: four tiers of ruffles, set off with a white bow, lime-green-accented visor and shoes, with a bow on the back of each.

A picture, in this case, might be worth 2,000 words, but we’ll let you make that call.

The dashing style was a nod to “Harajuku” fashion, a neighborhood in the Shibuya district of Tokyo where the youth there have broken free of the strict dress codes of traditional Japanese culture.

“The inspiration that fueled the look for me — and this might be a Japanese term — is feeling like a ‘magical girl’ on the court,” Osaka said earlier in a statement. “There’s a moment of transformation for me when I walk onto the court.”

Transformation has been the watch-word for Osaka this summer, as she stepped back onto her beloved hard courts for the first time since March.

Osaka, who chose the color more than a year ago, said she was particularly thrilled by this project.

“I feel like being able to be a part of my tennis outfits gives me, I would say, a different strength,” Osaka said. “Especially the US Open outfits, I feel like they are a little bit more flamboyant.

“I feel like everyone was staring at me funny. And then I put the [matching] headphones on, that was a real killer. I was, like, `You know what, embrace this maximalist style.’ And then it made me feel better, another player came up to me and asked to take a picture. I hope it was a positive picture, it wasn’t, like, `Oh, my God, look at her.’”

The outfit — Osaka called it a “super suit” — might have had a hand in the victory. Earlier this month, she likened the feeling of stepping back onto her beloved hard courts to feeling, “like Sailor Moon just transforming,” a reference to the iconic Japanese superhero.

“I do remember thinking, I need to win this match so I can wear my other color,” Osaka said, drawing laughter from the assembled writers. “That was very important to me.

“Yeah, I guess you’ll see my other color next time.”