At the end of January in Melbourne, Naomi Osaka stepped into Rod Laver Arena carrying the weight of a return, a reputation, and a set of expectations that have rarely been hers alone.

The Australian Open is one of the arenas where her public life has long taken shape. It’s where she’s won championships, stepped away, and come back changed. This year she arrived with all of it held visibly, deliberately, on her body.

Her on-court look, created in collaboration with her long-time sponsor Nike and couturier Robert Wun, moved with a translucent fluidity, liquid in motion. The reference, she explained later, was a jellyfish, a species defined by adaptability, built to evolve even as environments change.

But what Osaka was doing went beyond aesthetics. The player’s tunnel at a major tournament is typically a passage of uniformity, where tradition (tennis’s long-standing sartorial and behavioral codes) outweighs personal expression — even as thousands who watch from the stand, and millions more from behind screens, have increasingly come to expect pure entertainment in all forms. To enter that space differently is to test the sport’s boundaries in real time. The outfit proposed a form of power that didn’t need hardness to assert itself, and quietly questioned how far expression can move within a sport defined by restraint.

The small butterfly motif that appeared both on her hat and umbrella was drawn from a moment five years earlier during the same tournament, when one famously landed on her mid-match; an image that became quietly iconic. By reintroducing that moment now, Osaka folded memory into performance and insisted that personal history belongs on the court.

At 28, Osaka has already achieved what most athletes spend entire careers chasing. Seven WTA singles titles. Four Grand Slam championships including two Australian Opens and two US Opens (she’s the first Japanese player to win a major singles title). And on top of that, her 25 weeks as world No. 1, beginning in January 2019, made her the first Asian player ever to reach the top of the WTA rankings.

Her career prize money sits at around $25 million. Outside of on-court winnings, she’s also been one of the most marketable athletes in the world, at one point becoming the highest-paid female athlete in history through endorsements alone, with partners ranging from luxury labels like Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer to mass-market brands such as Levi’s, Nissan, and Mastercard.

And yet, her legacy has been shaped as much by what she has resisted as what she has won.

That defiance has often taken visual form. In 2020, during her US Open title run, Osaka walked onto the court wearing a different mask for each match, each bearing the name of a Black victim of racial violence. In a sport that prizes neutrality, the gesture was unmistakable. It turned one of tennis’s most ritualized moments into an act of remembrance broadcast globally.

That same instinct has guided her relationship with fashion more broadly. When she collaborated with Yoon Ahn of AMBUSH, the choice carried weight, albeit a different one. It was a Japanese designer working with the first Japanese player to reach world No. 1, using the court as a site where heritage, identity, and modern expression could coexist. Osaka’s outfits are simply extensions of how she speaks when words are insufficient.

“Clothes are an athlete’s armor, built for performance, but also a cape that signals identity on the field and the track,” says Yoon Ahn. “Naomi is using style to express who she is beyond results, and I love seeing her have fun with it.”

Born in Osaka, Japan, to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, and raised in the United States from the age of three, Osaka grew up navigating difference before she ever learned how to dominate a baseline. That duality between cultures and expectations trained her early to see how systems operate, and who they’re built to accommodate.

In 2021, she exposed one of them. Her withdrawal from the French Open over mandatory media obligations forced tennis to confront the emotional labor it quietly demands. The backlash was immediate. So was the shift. Osaka made visible the cost of being endlessly available, endlessly legible, endlessly… composed. Motherhood later added another layer.

After giving birth in 2023, Osaka returned to competition with a recalibrated sense of success. This time increasingly shaped by sustainability. That shift was visible at this year’s Australian Open, where the intention behind her return was clear even as its fragility surfaced. She withdrew ahead of her third-round match with an abdominal injury, a quiet reminder that power, however carefully built, still negotiates with the body.

Away from the court, that same deliberateness continues. Through her investment in women’s soccer club North Carolina Courage, and the founding of production company Hana Kuma and sports agency Evolve (that latter which she left earlier this year to join IMG Tennis), Osaka has been extending that recalibration into the rest of her life. Again, showing us a little more of who she is off the court.

This is what’s actually happening when Naomi Osaka walks onto the court carrying more than the role of a tennis player. She is pressing against the limits of what an athlete can (and perhaps should) represent at a moment when sport, fashion, and popular culture are increasingly collapsing into a single cultural economy. What she brings into view may appear soft in nature, but its implication is that an athlete’s body carries meaning beyond performance alone.

Christopher: Naomi, where am I reaching you today?

Naomi: I’m in North Carolina. My daughter’s here but I’m usually in Miami.

You just got back from Melbourne for the Australian Open where you made headlines for your on-court outfits. I feel like the expression of on and off court identity is increasingly being expressed differently by athletes today. A bigger expression of sorts. What was the idea behind this?

It’s definitely about self-expression for me. I use fashion as an outlet. I don’t even see it as “putting it on.” Obviously every outfit has a story, and this one was about a jellyfish. It was really cool because Nike let me design my outfit and it was the first time that they sold it, as well. I was really proud. I also got to collaborate with the designer, Robert Wun, who I’ve loved for years.

Compared to when you started as a pro to now, what’s been the big change in how people view the roles of athletes on and off the courts?

When I started, I was really young. I think athletes then were just put into a box of just showing up on the court to do their profession and you’d only see them there. Now, being an athlete myself, I just see myself doing everything. Talking about things that interest me, and I feel like people weren’t really conditioned to understand that.

Do you feel like the expectation to be more than an athlete from the public has grown?

I can only speak for myself, but I don’t feel that pressure as it’s something I naturally do. I’ve seen people asking players to talk about issues and it clearly makes them uncomfortable, so it depends on the athlete.

The first time your style on the court really caught my attention was when you worked with AMBUSH’s Yoon Ahn in 2024. I feel like on the tennis court, showing off one’s personal style was big in the ’80s and the ’90s. But over the past few decades, it’s reverted to something more classic, no?

Honestly, I have to agree with you. I definitely think that outfit was when it clicked for me — that I can start being myself more. Even before that point, my outfits were a little bit different from traditional tennis outfits, but I didn’t go fully out or commit to the bit. And then with Yoon, I love everything about her and her personal style, so I just wanted to do it justice. Our [mutual] Japanese culture also came together. That allowed me to understand that I’m shy in real life, but I don’t have to be shy when I’m going on the court in a really cool outfit.

Do you think showing that different part of your personality has an effect on your opponent?

I don’t really think about what my opponent thinks. I really respect people that dress differently or even have the courage to do anything out of the ordinary, which is why I love the tennis players that I looked up to, because they wore things that I remember. As a kid, I was the fashion girl who loved all the grand reveals. Often, whenever I wear an outfit, like the Australian Open outfit just now, most of the players come up to me and talk about it. They seem intrigued.

That’s cool. I guess it allows them to express themselves more openly. Zooming out, what do you think in general of fashion becoming this bigger thing in sports?

I think fashion and sports are definitely coming together, and it’s really fun and interesting to observe. There are a lot of athletes who are becoming brand ambassadors of some really cool brands, but I’m also very curious to see how it pans out. Over the past two or three years, people have gone to tennis events dressed up, and it’s become a thing of “what I’m wearing to Wimbledon or the US Open.”

I feel people are trying to make these tennis tournaments a bigger cultural moment. Have you seen it change from a player perspective, in relation to how players market their image?

I’m sure they do, but I’m also the worst person to ask this question because I’m kind of like a grandma when it comes to certain things. I do realize that there are a bunch of young and dynamic players out right now like Joao Fonseca and Ben Shelton. Ben worked with Loewe for example, which I thought was cool. So it’s fascinating to see the different avenues that they’re going to take and the way that their personal brands are going to venture off.

Do you feel like there’s this expectation in tennis to be or look a certain way in that case?

For sure. I feel like whenever I do something, there’s always people who are like, “Oh, let’s keep tennis classy.” Whatever that means. I think tennis is growing so much and there’s so much room to improve and to express yourself. I think, even now, they’re starting to implement different rules so [attendees] can come in during the middle of the games where traditionally you had to wait until the changeover. But, of course, there’s still rules about being silent and things like that. So it’s definitely a very traditional game and I feel like the players that are coming in aren’t as traditional as some people would hope.

That’s a good thing, right?

Yeah, for sure. I think it’s cool, the different players that are entering. If you want to talk about diversity, that’s a different topic, but I would love to see more people that look like me.

Would you ever do something in tennis after your tennis career to drive change further?

I’m not really sure, to be honest. I had a love-hate relationship with the sport just because I feel like I’ve been through so much in such a short amount of time. I’m also very grateful for everything that the sport has provided me. If somehow I inspired someone that looked like me to play this sport, that’s one of the greatest things that could occur. And that would also make me want to continue doing things with the sport after my career finishes.

I think about something that Héctor Bellerín, the footballer, once told me. He said something along the lines of, “People think about us athletes as just doing this one thing and that’s the only thing we do, but we have many hours left after training.” What are some things that you do when you’re not training or in recovery?

When I’m with my daughter, I just spend all my time with her. And if I’m not with her, or if I’m playing tournaments and she’s not there, I typically just try to hang out with my friends or sketch and read. Right now I’m reading the Throne of Glass series.

You started playing young right?

Yeah, I technically started playing tennis when I was three, and I think I turned pro when I was 16 or 17.

How have you seen the game change since your early years?

I view the game changing. Everyone’s been inspired by the William sisters. Whether they say it or not, they’ve definitely changed the game a lot. And I think when I played, I was lucky enough to play both of them. Looking back, there’s a few players I looked up to who I wish I could have played against, like Li Na or [Elena] Dementieva. I also kind of liked the drama with Janković.

As far as the players go, obviously everyone’s stronger and faster now, and I think people also just take the sport itself more seriously. In the times before us, I think some athletes could get away with doing certain things just because they were athletic enough. Now everyone’s figuring out their fitness level. I feel like that also has to do with Djokovic, to be honest. He’s kind of set a precedent on understanding your body and putting in work to do all the recovery. He’s amazing. He just went to the Australian Open finals and he’s still here fighting and winning.

And the businesses that you’ve started and invested in. That’s something you look to do more of?

I mean, that would be ideal. I feel really blessed that tennis has given me the platform to explore so many different avenues and learn from so many different amazing people. But I don’t know. When I play tennis, I obviously think about the longevity of it and us athletes typically don’t get to play until we’re 50 or 60. So I’d love to set up things around things I love. I have a daughter now, so I want to make sure she’s OK in the future, as well.

Is that how your view of “success” might change in the future?

Yeah, for sure. When I was younger, success meant winning every match or tournament. Now it’s just being healthy, being able to play matches, seeing my daughter smile. It definitely changes based on your mindset or maybe your age, too. Or the things you’ve been through.

Your daughter is now three, the same age you started playing tennis at. Would you ever want her to follow in your footsteps?

If she wants to play tennis, she can. I’m never going to stop her from doing anything that she wants to do. I think it’s kind of inevitable because when I was young, I also wanted to do the things that my mom did. My daughter has her own little tennis racket and she sometimes hits the ball. But I think I am focused more on her character and how she grows up to be as a person. I want to create a really good environment around her so that she’s able to grow and learn and explore as best that she can.

Has being a mother shifted your perspective on life, on the game, on everything?

It’s made me realize that some things that I thought were super important before aren’t as important or hold as much meaning as I once thought. I also realize now that we don’t live forever and there are precious moments in time that we have to treasure.

What’s something you still hope to achieve as an athlete?

Hopefully to win another Slam, that would be a very big goal I’d love to set for myself, which I think is possible. It just sucks that I got injured in Australia.

Would you ever move closer to the fashion industry?

That’s something that I would love to do. I spend all my time on the court, so that’s a tough one. I’ve had some really cool collabs in the past with different brands like Levi’s, and they let me design things, which was a good learning experience. I would love to go into that deeper.

It’s a loaded word but what do you hope your legacy will be?

Yeah, honestly, it crossed my mind a lot maybe two years ago, and I think it’s because I just had my daughter. I would hope my legacy is that I’m someone who made it easier for the generation after. And also someone that made it easy for the people that are different or unique. For me, with my background being Japanese and Haitian and American, I’ve just always been considered different. And growing up, playing with the Japanese flag, but not looking fully Japanese, it just made me aware of being a little different from everyone else. I was always kind of OK with it and I realized that for some people, it’s tough to accept that. I realized there are always a few black sheep in the bunch and just hope that they know that it’s cool to be different and unique. Those are things that make you, you and it’s something that should be embraced rather than something that should be shamed.