“I’d actually prefer to talk about my clothes”: Osaka reaches the Wimbledon last 16

Naomi Osaka continued to make a statement at Wimbledon, pairing her flair off the court with growing confidence on it to dismiss unseeded Australian Daria Kasatkina 6-1 6-3 and reach the last 16 for the first time.

Widely regarded as one of tennis’s top fashion trailblazers, Osaka has attracted plenty of attention for eye-catching dresses in the first week, but the four-times Grand Slam champion from Japan is also letting her tennis take the spotlight.

She would be perfectly fine, though, if her attire remained the main talking point. “I’d actually prefer to talk about my clothes,” Osaka said. “In some ways I feel I’m a lot more equipped to talk about my clothes than to talk about my tennis. It’s strange, because I’ve been playing tennis for 20-something years. Some days I don’t feel like an expert on it. If we were to talk about my outfit, I feel I could keep going on and on and on. I find it really fun that people care and are doing deep dives into the fabric and the making-of stories. I don’t mind.”

After shedding another variation of her “Kill Bill” walk-on ensemble — this time a flower-patterned robe — the 14th seed mixed power with precision. She fired a backhand winner to break Kasatkina in the second game, backed it up with a deep forehand for a double break, and raced through the first set on a sun-drenched Court One. “I’ve actually never won on this court, so I’m really glad to have made a really good memory here,” she said to loud applause.

“The longer I’m in the tournament, the more stories I can tell with my outfits anyways, because I like to mix and match,” Osaka added. “Even tennis-wise, I feel really good now. I feel pretty confident. I feel I’m playing really well. There’s only so many tennis questions you can answer, you know? It’s like the clothing questions are endless a little bit.”

The 28-year-old, who reached her first tour-level grass court final at Bad Homburg before retiring injured, showed she could be a force in the second week: she squandered an early lead in the second set but fought back to raise two match points and finished the second in style.

Next comes an intriguing clash with world number one Aryna Sabalenka or former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko for a quarter-final spot. “My confidence is pretty high,” Osaka said. “I know what my grasscourt tennis looks like. It gives me a pretty stable mindset going into the match no matter who I play.”