{"id":832603,"date":"2026-09-01T03:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832603\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T03:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T03:38:12","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-explains-twist-in-us-open-outfit-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832603\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka explains twist in US Open outfit drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time that Aryna Sabalenka graced the court at Arthur Ashe, her outfit became the talk of the U.S. Open mixed doubles<\/a> last week. Back on the same court for the main draw, the tennis star had changed it up from the black and orange look to an all-orange one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabalenka and her mixed doubles partner, Novak Djokovic, lost in that tournament. So did the Belarusian want to change up her look to try to change her luck in the main draw? Not quite.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ArynaAryna Sabalenka competes in mixed doubles during the 2026 U.S. Open tennis championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City on Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I didn\u2019t know that I have a day dress,\u201d she explained after beginning her U.S. Open title defense with a win over Camila Osorio 6-2, 6-4. \u201cI thought I have a black dress with orange underneath. I figured (out) when I went to Nike that I actually have day session and night session, which is just like an orange for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked directly if she has any superstitious tendencies when it came to her attire, she responded straight forwardly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, I don\u2019t believe in that stuff,\u201d Sabalenka said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s orange Nike kit <\/a>was covered by a black mesh top when she paired with Djokovic, causing a stir on social media. On Monday, she sported orange mesh over the same orange kit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The look apparently drew concern from some tennis fans that the outfit, which was a basketball-inspired look that paid tribute to the Big Apple tournament, was not appropriate for the No. 1-ranked women\u2019s tennis player.<\/p>\n

She defended the outfit in the lead-up to the tournament, ultimately saying that people will \u201calways complain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is looking to pick up her third straight U.S. Open title this year and will face Polina Iatcenko in the second round later this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ArynaAryna Sabalenka competes in the first round of the 2026 U.S. Open tennis championships inside Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City on Monday, August 31, 2026. Andrew Schwartz\/SIPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s got plenty of history on her side in Queens, the defending champ said she doesn\u2019t give any credence to the past, good or bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the good thing for me is not looking back no matter what, if it\u2019s good or bad, because I feel a good result can also stop you from performing well because you\u2019re basically focusing on the past, you know. So I never, like, look back,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I win the tournament or lose the tournament, for me today is a new day and I have to be focused just staying in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time that Aryna Sabalenka graced the court at Arthur Ashe, her outfit became the talk of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[652,99,428,14687],"class_list":["post-832603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}