It’s time for my first Grand Slam fashion overview of the decade! The WTA clothing scene gets more and more exciting every year and it takes longer and longer to present the diversity of performance apparel during major tournaments. Grab your favorite drink and slowly sip while you go through this extensive collage of women’s tennis outfits at the 2020 Australian Open.
Let’s open with the industry leader, Nike, and their colorful prints created by Melbourne-based artist Cassie Byrnes whose inspiration were the rock formations and continental shifts of pre-historic Australia.
Petra Kvitova matches her abstract-printed Nike Spring Melbourne Dress with headband and wristbands in the same style.
Catherine Bellis, Elina Svitolina and Sloane Stephens are among NikeCourt stars who have opted for the Spring Melbourne Bodysuit + Spring Melbourne Skirt combo. Note that no player showed up wearing just the temperature-regulating bodysuit! Nike announced that Bianca Andreescu would go for that bold look, but the world No.6 Canadian isn’t competing in Melbourne due to injury.
Simona Halep pairs the faux-wrap Nike Spring Melbourne Skirt with the white version of the open-back Nike Spring Melbourne Tank.
Nike’s well-known tennis shoe models (Vapor Cage 4, Vapor X and Air Zoom Zero) have been updated in a “Fairy Bread” colorway for the Australian Open. Above we can see Donna Vekic‘s feet in the Nike Air Zoom Vapor X.
Defending champion Naomi Osaka showed up in a customized take on the Australia-inspired Nike gear.
The Japanese rocks her very own dress that looks like a bodysuit featuring a large back cutout and a lightweight white skirt layer with a dominant side slit at left hip.
The 22-year-old Osaka also has her Nike Air Zoom Zero shoes color-coordinated.
Serena Williams‘ custom-made tiered dress is a light purple version of the collection’s pebble print that Nike incorporated in the Melbourne Women’s Jacket and Pants.
Maria Sharapova‘s glory tennis days are long gone, but she’s still firmly holding onto her status of a tennis fashion icon. The former world No.1, who is currently ranked No.145 and will drop out of the Top 350 after the Australian Open, looked elegant in her red Nike Spring Maria Dress during her first-round defeat. The glamorous piece cleverly mixes stretchy jersey and asymmetrical mesh panels to ensure top performance and sophisticated look. By the way, the Russian was not the only one sporting the red dress, we also saw it on Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.
Belinda Bencic sports separates from Masha’s line: the textured T-back Nike Spring Maria Tank and yellow Nike Spring Maria Skirt.
World No.1 Ashleigh Barty is promoting Fila‘s Colorful Play collection. The Australian is wearing the Play Racerback Tank in mint, highlighted by contrast binding at neck and armholes, as well as ruched mesh insert at neckline, and the amparo blue A-line Skirt. The updated Axilus 2 Energized tennis shoe perfectly matches the smooth pastels of the Melbourne collection.
Caroline Wozniacki‘s Adidas Heat Ready Dress will stay remembered as the last tennis dress of her career, since the Dane is finishing her life on tour at the Australian Open. The design includes a mix of mesh fabrics and HEAT.RDY cooling technology to help players fight off the heat. The colorblocking style combines shades officially called tech purple, dash green, purple tint and shock yellow. The dress comes with a built-in bra and a separate coordinating shortie with leg grippers.
Another outfit from Adidas’ HEAT.RDY collection pairs the Y-back tank and skirt, as we can see here on Angelique Kerber.
Jelena Ostapenko wears a blue version of Kerber’s look, originally intended for Caroline Wozniacki.
Venus Williams first revealed her new Neon Dreams Zoom Dress during a pre-tournament practice and then rocked the same EleVen design in her first-round loss to Coco Gauff. V’s dress stands out with its vibrant contrast binding and power mesh overlay on front and back yoke.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands‘ Australian Open attire draws inspiration from the Sydney Opera House, translating the tennis star’s energetic personality into her on-court look, using asymmetrical cuts, vibrant prints and unpredictable colorblocking. The new Lucky in Love collection created in collaboration with the former doubles world No.1 is called “A Night at the Opera”. During her first-round doubles victory, the American debuted the Sunset Tie-Back Tank and Hi-Phantom Tier Skirt.
Fifteen-year-old Coco Gauff, the youngest player in the draw, debuted the New Balance AO Print Rally Skort, featuring mesh pockets on the shorts, and a matching tank.
Sorana Cirstea is among New Balance‘s representatives dressed in the lemon slush shade of yellow, dominating the Spring 2020 collection that has been present on the courts since the start of the season. The world No.74 Romanian is pictured here in the New Balance AO Tournament Dress.
As I showed you in my Yonex Australian Open fashion preview, Ukrainian world No.21 Dayana Yastremska has introduced the sea blue racerback tank with figure-slimming vertical side stripes and a matching skort in the color inspired by courts at Melbourne Park.
As you’ve seen in my Asics preview, Julia Goerges‘ outfit consists of the navy Spring Elite Skirt and a coral tank.
The German’s look is completed by the Solution Speed FF women’s shoe featuring Flyte Foam cushioning in the midsole that makes it lighter than ever, more cushioned and more durable. The footwear offers stability and traction for aggressive movers while flexing and twisting.
Marie Bouzkova wore a light pink Joma Spring Aurora Dress featuring mesh insets at the tank straps and racerback, but what really attracted attention was this colorful long-sleeve top the Czech put on during warm-up.
Lesia Tsurenko and other Lotto representatives sport the Spring 2020 Tech collection characterized by blue and green cabbage blocks of color. The 30-year-old Ukrainian opted for the Lotto Spring Tech Tank and Lotto Spring Tech Skirt, introduced during the Australian Open warm-up period.
K-Swiss is finally working on getting more exposure in women’s tennis. The company signed world No.52 Ajla Tomljanovic at the start of the season and now the Australian is wearing the Breaking Barriers collection and Ultrashot 2 shoes.
Lacoste‘s Spring 2020 collection manages to stay within the confines of what would be considered traditional tennis apparel, but with a fresh twist, which tends to be my favorite combination. Here we can see American Kristie Ahn in the colorblock dress first shown to us by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The design has a quarter-zip entry, yellow and light blue highlights on the sides and green crocodile branding on left chest. Mesh details make the dress extra appealing.
Ellesse introduced nothing new, as Johanna Konta is recycling her last year’s style with chevron accents.
Svetlana Kuznetsova used to be a sole representative of Qiaodan, but her bold Australian Open dress with black mesh insets doesn’t have a logo, so we can assume that the Russian two-time major champion is looking for a new clothing sponsor.
Barbora Strycova also seems to have ended her partnership with Sergio Tacchini. The Czech is wearing the brand’s skirt, but her tank seems to be generic. Do you guys know anything about this?
Overall, I think we’re having a spectacular Australian Open in terms of fashion. The NikeCourt looks perfectly reflect the vibrancy of the Sunshine Slam, Masha once again brought pure glamour with her red dress, Naomi and Serena impress with their personalized looks, Venus rocked her open-chest dress, Adidas created a nice combination of purple and coral, while Lacoste got things to a whole new level with the simple colorblock dress.
Which look is your favorite? Have I missed to include an outfit that you really like?
I do like Naomi’s dress, and I like the other Nike pattern, but as i said before, can’t see how it is reminiscent of Australia in any way! And I am Australian, I know what it looks like. Otherwise my favourites are the Lacoste and Polona’s dress. Asics, New balance and Fila are ok but a bit blah. And no-one really looks good in purple or yellow. Or both together – see Bencic.
Cassie Byrne’s designs are cute for a children’s fingerprint… but yeah, not good for adult tennis clothes. let’s add cassies collection to the equally awful and rediculous Serena selections. Can’t we just try to make designs more like those of Sharapova – a loud, but long-time, classy court dresser.
Agree. Cassie Byrnes designs are subtle, but just plain terrible.
Nice to see the variety of designs by different brands.
CLT, I am not from Australia, but I can see the resemblance with “The Rock”, and there must be more such examples in the landscape.
Can you please mention Jelena Ostapenko dress also? That dress supposed to wore by Caroline by instead Jelena was wearing that and I think she’s the only the wore that blue dress. Others all wore the purple dress.