There have been positively some notable outfit and accent decisions in final 12 months’s play, too (see: Jessica Pegula’s armpit cutouts, Sloane Stephens’s delicate diamond necklace, or Marta Kostyuk’s neon-yellow gown), however Naomi Osaka’s large “Brat” inexperienced bows emerged because the undisputed champion. Going into the primary spherical of the 2024 Open, Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion (and two-time US Open winner), confirmed as much as play Jelena Ostapenko sporting a bow-covered bomber jacket, frilly inexperienced skirt, and matching tennis gown—a custom-made, cottage-core-y collab between Nike and the Japanese designer Yoon Ahn. Even her headphones, sneakers, and tennis bag have been adorned.
When requested in regards to the distinctive look in her post-match interview, Osaka described it as “maximalist” and mentioned it was impressed by Harajuku type. Within the second spherical of the event (which led to a loss to Karolina Muchova), she debuted a black model of the identical getup. Talking to The New York Occasions, she defined that dressing up helps increase her psychological well being. “Once I put on what I really feel is an effective outfit, I positively really feel extra snug,” she mentioned.
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6. The place do the opponents—particularly ladies in skirts—put their tennis balls throughout play?
Talking of tennis skirts, in case you’ve ever donned one earlier than, you most likely already know the reply: There are discreet little pockets in most clothes that may maintain a couple of balls. Nonetheless, as SELF’s health director, Christa Sgobba, has complained up to now, “Our tennis uniforms in highschool did not have pockets!” (So protected to say it’s not a common requirement!)
7. So why is Wimbledon’s gown code so freaking strict?!
Get able to roll your eyes thus far again into your head that they change into completely lodged there. In an interview with BBC Tradition from 2023, Robert Lake, writer of A Social Historical past of Tennis in Britain, mentioned this: “White hides sweat the most effective, seems to be clear, sharp, and tidy, representing goodness (aesthetically) and, given cricket connections, additionally displays upper-middle-class leisure traditionally.” (BRB, making a psychological notice to look at this 12 months’s Open sporting my tackiest, most colourful Spandex outfit in a foam Statue of Liberty hat with Cowboy Carter streaming within the background.)
8. Do US Open opponents win prize cash?
Whereas the 2024 Open boasted the most important money allotment for gamers in event historical past ($75 million, a 15% enhance from 2023), the 2025 occasion units the bar even greater: $90 million. The lads’s and ladies’s singles champs will obtain $5 million apiece, a rise of virtually $1.5 million from final 12 months’s $3.6 mil. In response to Brendan McIntyre, the senior director of company communications for the US Open, all 4 Grand Slam occasions provide equal prize cash for women and men. Nonetheless, the US Open was the primary to make that decision (thanks in no small half to the efforts of tennis legend Billie Jean King and different activists), all the way in which again in 1973.
But it surely’s not simply the victors who take dwelling a test: Second-place winners earn $2.5 million, semifinalists earn $1.26 million, quarterfinalists earn $660,000, and so forth. Even athletes who lose within the first spherical get slightly (or not-so-little) one thing: $110,000. (Not unhealthy!)
9. Do followers must be quiet throughout US Open matches?
The Open’s extra informal look compared to different massive tennis tourneys is mirrored in its total perspective too—the Arthur Ashe Stadium will get famously rowdy. “It is the loudest and doubtless essentially the most humid circumstances of all middle courts of all 4 Grand Slams,” Novak Djokovic advised reporters throughout a press convention in 2023. That 12 months, the Open welcomed 957,387 followers again for the 20-day occasion, an 8% enhance in attendance from 2022—and people folks prefer to social gathering, typically to the gamers’ frustration. On the 2022 event, Australian Nick Kyrgios claimed {that a} spectator smoking weed induced his bronchial asthma signs to kick in.
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