Australian Open 2026 – The fashion and looks of the tournament

With tennis back on the biggest stage, the apparel designers also are back doing what they (should) do best. The Australian Open are the first big opportunity for sportswear companies to show their newest looks and as per usual, there is the good, the bad and the outright ugly. This year, a couple of brands had a comeback, while some others seem to play it safe. Let’s have a look into who did it best and which pieces could be ones to get!

Also, don’t miss all of the 2026 Australian Open collections available at retailers such as at Tennis Warehouse (USA, Canada), Tennis Warehouse Europe and Tennis Only (Australia).

Wilson, the biggest story?

Arguably, Wilson has not had the best year in 2025 when it comes to their usual stronghold, racquets. Several players changed their Blade to either blacked out frames or changed sponsors completely, their Shift line wasn’t the biggest of success and other brands just seem to gain ground. But next to their exciting new Ultra frames and their upcoming Spin frame, they seem to have found a new area of improvement – apparel.

Karen Khachanov, Alex De Minaur and Jiri Lehecka join their men’s roster, while Anastasia Potapova strengthens their women’s lineup. Both the women and men wear new styles in burgundy red, with pink options available for the women. All choices are rather classic, but the Wilson apparel has gained quite some fans already last year, with stylish basic looks and decent quality throughout. The Australian Open collection is nowhere near spectacular, but the brand is making big moves and will surely continue to gain some ground in the apparel sector.

Nike, it could be worse, could it?

We all had our fair share of discussions around the Nike approach – less effort into the tennis line, purging their roster and some questionable designs. Their contribution mainly features a variety of colourful designs, that somehow seem to be meant as a summer and surf connected theme. Aryna Sabalenka has a custom dress in pink, orange and black that is kind of the star of this line. Mirra Andreeva and others have the generic looks in lavender, blue and black, which also is reasonably beautiful. I’ll get to Naomi Osaka later, so bear with me here.

Carlos Alcaraz is the stand-out for the men with a sleeveless green look that reminds people of the Kim Possible villain online. Now, you could say this is a questionable choice of colors, but he actually got the better of Jannik Sinner here, too.

The mustard-colored set that Nike designed for the Italian is just borderline offensive, and even Sinner himself mentioned that he might have to get involved more in the future. With Holger Rune out of Melbourne, their men’s roster is very focused on the two main players, but the more generic Nike looks for men are actually more beautiful than the Sinner collection and would potentially deserve more praise.

The others – Asics, Lululemon and?

The chapter about adidas can be very short for this year. The German brand kept it basic with an orange theme color, paired with either black or white, depending on the preference of the player. With Auger-Aliassime falling early, Zverev remains their top player on the men’s side – who wears an all-black kit with orange highlights. Nothing much to do wrong here, as with orange and white women’s dresses of Iva Jovic or Elina Svitolina.

Asics is one of my favorites in Australia, pairing a pink called “Sakura” with some neon green and white. They add a look that mainly focuses on new World No. 5 Musetti (image on top) for the men, with light-blue and some shades of petrol. This signing continues to be a genius move for the brand, as Musetti rises in the rankings and of course, remains a pretty fashionable character to have on your roster. The women’s lineup lost Eva Lys in the offseason and now focuses on a basic look for Jasmine Paolini once more – but their stronghold now (next to shoes) is the men’s portfolio.

One brand that tries to gain some momentum is Canadian activewear powerhouse lululemon. They have signed Frances Tiafoe and Leylah Fernandez as their main players, and their looks are usually quite impressive. Tiafoe received a batik-like style in white and blue, which looks good, but their pre-season light-blue look seemed a bit more wearable on your average recreational court. Fernandez is already out of the tournament, unfortunately, but her violet two-piece was classic lululemon again and surely won’t be remembered as one of the worse dresses.

On has another version of their print shirts available, kind of reminiscent of tire marks. Ben Shelton wears the sleeveless version for men, one that looks quite fine. Cobolli, who had a less than impressive showing in Melbourne, had the same look with sleeves, while Iga Swiatek received a different kit. And let’s just say that her version isn’t my favorite – somewhere between 90s vintage and racing flags, the kit won’t make my list of top 10.

Naomi Osaka 

If you haven’t seen Tim Henman’s live reaction on Naomi Osaka’s walk-on, then I would recommend watching it. Because his face basically is all my reactions in one. Naomi Osaka walked into Rod Laver Arena in a dress that somehow was in between Japanese tradition, high-fashion and tennis, and none of the concepts worked with each other. While I respect her passion for fashion and the time that she puts into this, but after all, this style wasn’t quite for me or anyone who reacted online. Still, she remains one of the icons of women’s tennis and I bet that there are some other looks in her bag for this season.

But tell us, what are your favorite looks for this year’s Australian Open?