Watch a veiled Naomi Osaka turn heads with Australian Open walk-on outfit

Parasol? Check. Veil? Check. Gigantic hat decorated with a butterfly and worn low over the eyes à la Beyoncé in the singer's "Formation" video? Check. Naomi Osaka, the No. 17-ranked player on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, made a diva-worthy entrance to the Rod Laver Arena for her first-round match against Antonia Ruzic, turning her entrance on to court into a high-fashion catwalk.

Another cultural reference point seemed to be Gunna's 2024 album "One Of Wun," whose cover featured a painting of the rapper veiled in a floral headscarf by artist Calvin Clausell Jr. "WUN OF ONE," Osaka captioned an Instagram post which went up shortly after her match began. 

After the match, though, Osaka revealed that the inspiration behind the outfit was not pop culture, but nature. Designed in collaboration with Robert Wun, it had been modeled after a jellyfish. The butterfly accoutrements had been a reference to Osaka's 2021 Australian Open title run, during which a butterfly had landed on Osaka in her third-round match against Ons Jabeur.

"Honestly it came together quite beautifully," she said, "because I didn't know what to expect when I arrived here. Then it just felt like everywhere I looked, the theme was water. Obviously the walkout was like, you see oceans and waves. I thought that it was really beautiful. Really amazing coincidence."

After the match, the 28-year-old revealed that the grand entrance was planned well ahead of time, and required some logistical legwork to ensure that it was properly executed. 

"This is definitely months [of] planning," the four-time Grand Slam champion said. "Obviously you kind of have to prep for this. You also have to see the design, see if it works, see if you can walk. The scariest thing for me was I didn't know if the umbrella could fit in the tunnel. I did, low key, hit a couple of the little boards. I think it worked."

Watch the two-time champion's iconic opening to her tournament below.

"Obviously I really love fashion," she said. "That makes me excited to wake up and do the whole, like, walk-on. It just creates a little bit more joy in that whole match preparation."