Osaka wore a sequined \u200cwaistcoat blouse and black mesh train over her layered yellow-brown and \u200bgold match dress in the opening round, and despite the criticism arrived for the contest with Vekic in a white \u200bfloor-length flared train over her outfit.<\/p>\n
“I like to keep people on their toes. I think it’s really fun,” Osaka said following her second-round victory.<\/p>\n
“There’s a community that I feel like has been built over my on-court outfits, so I just like to keep you guys guessing. I really enjoy that you guys enjoy it.”<\/p>\n
Twitter<\/p>\n
This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Unlike Siegemund, Vekic has no issue with Osaka’s eye-catching entrances, saying: “It’s good that she’s doing different things, expressing herself through fashion.<\/p>\n “Whether it’s good (fashion) or bad, that’s a different thing, it’s fashion.<\/p>\n “Some people take tennis way too seriously. Relax, it’s just an outfit. It’s not such a big deal. She has the opportunity to do that so why not?”<\/p>\n How Osaka battled through in Paris<\/p>\n On another blazing hot day in \u2060Paris, the Japanese player traded breaks freely with Vekic in the opening \u200cset on Court Simonne-Mathieu, before finding her best form during the tie-break to prevail for the \u200closs of only one point.<\/p>\n Osaka saved \u200ba break point in the second set to \u2060close out the win in one hour and 50 minutes, reaching the third round for the \u2060first time since 2019.<\/p>\n She will \u200bface 16th-seed Iva Jovic next after the American beat compatriot Emma Navarro 6-0 6-3 earlier.<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Earlier this year at the Australian Open, Osaka walked on wearing a wide-brim hat, a veil and holding a white parasol.<\/p>\n And at last year’s US Open, she had sparkly red roses in her ponytail above her red outfit and even a matching Labubu that she named ‘Billie Jean Bling’.<\/p>\n So how does Osaka switch her focus from her grand entrances to playing a tennis match minutes later?<\/p>\n “I’m a little used to it now,” she said. “The US Open, the roses in my hair, that’s when I started to really get into it a lot more. Obviously with Australia, that was a real conversation starter. So I don’t really feel like it’s too much of a big deal to do that and then play after.<\/p>\n Image: “Athletes are in show business. Grand Slam walk-ons are the only time that I possibly feel like I’m an entertainer.”<\/p>\n ‘I wasn’t scared for my life’ – Osaka on car accident in Paris before second-round win<\/p>\n Speaking after the match, Osaka also gave an account of a car accident she was involved in in Paris, as a bus reversed into the vehicle she was travelling in.<\/p>\n “I wasn’t scared for my life, but I was just like: ‘Whoa, this bus is really backing up into us’, and you could hear the car crunching. Yeah, that was a really interesting situation. So I hope it doesn’t happen again today.”<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Osaka was also asked about reports that 23-time major winner Serena Williams is set to come out of retirement to play doubles at Queen’s and return to Wimbledon, a tournament she won seven times, next month.<\/p>\n “The scope of it, I think it will bring people to watch tennis, which she always does bring an audience with her. So, yeah, I think it’s good”, said Osaka about the 44-year-old American.<\/p>\n “I feel like for me everyone knows Serena and Venus (Williams) were my role models growing up, so it’s going to be cool to see her on the grounds again.”<\/p>\n Sabalenka, Gauff progress<\/p>\n World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and defending champion Coco Gauff both moved into the last 32 with straight-sets wins.<\/p>\n Sabalenka came through a tough first set against France’s Elsa Jacquemot before pulling away to win 7-5 6-2 while Gauff saw off Mayar Sherif 6-3 6-2.<\/p>\n Sixth seed Amanda Anisimova only needed to spend 25 minutes on court, taking the first set 6-0 against Julia Grabher before the ailing Austrian called it a day.<\/p>\n Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, live on Sky Sports or stream with NOW<\/a> and the Sky Sports app<\/a>, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world No 1 Naomi Osaka \u200cmade another dazzling entry at the French Open on Thursday, but she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-471872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n The Japanese star made quite an impression at the Australian Open earlier this year<\/p>\n
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