By JOHN PYE, AP Sports activities Author
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A press release of confidence as a lot as fashion, Naomi Osaka walked onto one of many greatest phases in tennis carrying a wide-brim hat, a veil and holding a white parasol in a daring opening act on the Australian Open.
Conscious that such an iconic walk-on may backfire if she misplaced her first-round match, Osaka did the whole lot she wanted Tuesday to convey down the curtain on Day 3 at Rod Laver Area with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Antonia Ruzic.
The hat and umbrella had been adorned with symbolic butterflies, a nod to one of many memorable moments of Osaka’s final title run at Melbourne Park in 2021 moderately than a mirrored image of the standard first-round jitters at a serious event.
“Once I was taking part in at the moment, I simply informed myself, like, ‘Maintain your head on the trail. If she beats you, then that’s unlucky. However, hey, at the least you’re trending,’” on social media, she stated.
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Naomi Osaka of Japan walks onto Rod Laver Area for her first spherical match in opposition to Antonia Ruzic of Croatia on the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photograph/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
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Naomi Osaka of Japan walks onto Rod Laver Area for her first spherical match in opposition to Antonia Ruzic of Croatia on the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photograph/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Osaka has received 4 Grand Slam singles titles, together with two on the U.S. Open and two in Australia in 2019 and 2021.
She subsequent performs Sorana Cirstea, who beat Eva Lys 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. After reaching the U.S. Open semifinals last year — her finest outcome at a Grand Slam occasion in 4 years — Osaka is rising in confidence.
Born in Japan however rising up in America, Osaka was impressed by Venus and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, the tennis stars she described because the “G.O.A.T’s of favor.”
“I feel all of it comes right down to persona, too,” she stated.
The gown she wore in her first-round match, in shades of blue and inexperienced, was additionally a tribute to her daughter, Shai, and her fascination with jellyfish.
“So, the inspiration was clearly the jellyfish, then butterflies, which sort of ties again to the butterfly second I had right here a very long time in the past, in 2021,” Osaka stated, recalling the pictures of 1 touchdown on her throughout a third-round match.
It took months of planning. And all of it tied in with the remodelled participant tunnel at Rod Laver Area that displays Australian themes reminiscent of seashores and the coast.
“Truthfully it got here collectively fairly fantastically as a result of I didn’t know what to anticipate after I arrived right here,” Osaka stated. “Then it simply felt like all over the place I seemed the theme was water. Clearly the walkout was such as you see oceans and waves. I believed that it was actually lovely. Actually wonderful coincidence.”
