Naomi Osaka channels Allen Iverson in US Open night-session arrival, wins opening match
Naomi Osaka drew attention on September 1, 2026 at Arthur Ashe Stadium by arriving for her US Open night-session opener against Anastasia Zakharova in an outfit inspired by Allen Iverson, and followed the fashion statement with a straight-sets victory.
Osaka entered the stadium wearing a long white skirt and a hooded robe covered with newspaper clippings about herself before removing the robe to reveal a black outfit and cornrows, a hairstyle famously worn by Iverson during his NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers. She had worn a shirt featuring Iverson when she met the media on the eve of the tournament and called him a "trailblazer."
Osaka said she had never spoken to Iverson, but that changed after the NBA legend reacted to her look on Instagram; Iverson posted: "Wow, what a honor!! BIG FAN can't wait to meet you." Osaka explained her admiration, saying: "I think he's also someone that I look up to a lot, because he's kind done a lot in fashion, whether it's on purpose or not, but he's shifted the way that NBA players dress," and: "I also think the whole conversation around clothes in sports and also just expressing yourself through style, I feel like he's someone that I look up to in that regard."
On court, Osaka defeated Anastasia Zakharova in straight sets after twice building what looked like comfortable leads, going 5-2 up in the opening set and 5-3 ahead in the second before Zakharova, ranked No. 101, forced tiebreaks on both occasions. Osaka prevailed 8-6 in the first-set tiebreak on her third set point and closed out the second tiebreak 7-3; the match lasted just over two hours.
Addressing her off-court attention, Osaka said: "Honestly, like, nothing I do, I do to make a statement." She added: "But I literally do the things that I love to do, and I feel like people relate to it, and I'm really glad and grateful for that, because I feel like the type of person I am, a lot of people can see themselves in me. I really, honestly, I love that about myself." She also commented on the tournament surface, saying: "I do feel like I've played a lot of matches Honestly, this is the surface that I'm most comfortable with,"
Away from competition, Osaka has been developing her interest in fashion and design: between practice sessions in New York she travelled to Southampton to announce plans to take that passion further and unveiled a prototype of one of her new handbags during a fireside chat at the Fame to Fortune Summit. According to Variety, she described the brand as her "biggest dream" outside tennis and told Fortune's executive editorial director Diane Brady: "Being a really good tennis player has given me a lot of amazing opportunities to invest and also just to surround myself with some really great people and I feel like that's gotten me to this point where I want to create my own thing," adding: "It's something that I want to pour all my energy into because I believe in it too with all my heart."
With the win, the 28-year-old, a two-time US Open champion in 2018 and 2020, has begun her bid for a third US Open title.
