A Style Star Emerges on the Tennis Court

On Monday, the girlfriend of the American tennis participant Frances Tiafoe posted a video from what she known as a “fashion show.” In it, Mr. Tiafoe, ranked seventeenth on the earth, tried on a package despatched to him by Nike, his sponsor, as he readied for the Australian Open.

“It’s definitely a lot, but I’m here for it,” his girlfriend, Ayan Broomfield, a tennis participant from Canada, says as Mr. Tiafoe walks to a mirror to see the outfit: a sleeveless prime and shorts lined in multicolored waves, like an oil slick rainbow or a lava lamp. (According to Nike, the sample was impressed by Australia’s terrain.)

“Nah, that’s dope,” says Mr. Tiafoe, who’s sporting sneakers with a cherry blossom design. Ms. Broomfield laughs.

She shared the video on Twitter the day after Mr. Tiafoe debuted the outfit on the court docket, as a kind of tongue-in-cheek mea culpa in response to some spirited reactions from followers and commentators. “I absolutely loved it on him,” Ms. Broomfield wrote, “so y’all can blame me.” (She additionally credited Naomi Osaka for his sneakers.)

Mr. Tiafoe wore the kaleidoscopic set in the course of the event, together with on Friday, when he misplaced his third-round match. Though that ended his bid for the Australian title, the fashion factors he earned with the package aren’t so simply revoked.

With a silhouette that evoked a Nineteen Twenties bathing swimsuit, the outfit, from a distance, at first resembled a one-piece to followers. The tennis publication Racquet known as it “the Big Faux Romper,” nodding to Mr. Tiafoe’s nickname, “Big Foe,” which he wears spelled out on a necklace. The look, the journal tweeted, “invites you to reject thought and embrace only good vibes. Perfect Aussie summer himbo energy.”

This is the type of message he can certainly get behind. Mr. Tiafoe, 25, raised within the period of sports activities memes, represents a brand new type of tennis star — at the very least in contrast with the technology of intense, stately household-name gamers who rank above him, like Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Recently, for instance, Mr. Tiafoe tried to drag down the pants of one other American participant throughout an interview.

He’s goofy. He’s outspoken. And he understands that individuals prefer to have opinions about style on the web, writing about his Nike package on Instagram: “what we think bout the fit … I ain’t mad at it.”

But his good humor is basically why the look stood out — even amongst different Nike-sponsored gamers sporting the identical sample on their shorts or skirts. (None, although, wore the precise matching set cabana-style as Mr. Tiafoe did.) His strategy to the sport is flamboyant, fueled by the vitality of his viewers, stated the Racquet co-founder Caitlin Thompson, and so a flamboyant package fits him.

“Not a lot of these guys actually like to be flamboyant,” stated Ms. Thompson, who steered different Australian Open gamers sporting Nike look extra like they’re sporting costumes, in opposition to their will, “cowed into submission.”

“He’s not only such a goofball, but he seems like a very secure person, and I think that’s why he’s pulling it off,” she stated. “It feels like he’s wearing it, not it’s wearing him.” (Also, she added, the tank prime “shows off his guns.”)

The style business institution has observed Mr. Tiafoe, too. In September, shortly after he grew to become the primary American man in 16 years to succeed in the U.S. Open semifinals — the place his square-neck pink Nike shirt served as a warm-up to this yr’s much more colourful Australian Open package — he was seen sitting within the entrance row of Tom Ford’s spring 2023 present, sandwiched between Russell Westbrook and Ciara.

On the opposite aspect of Ciara was Anna Wintour, a famous tennis fanatic who has recruited three gamers as her co-chairs of the Met Gala: Serena Williams, in 2019; Naomi Osaka, in 2021; and Roger Federer, who was simply introduced as a chair of this yr’s gala.

Did Ms. Wintour have an opinion on Mr. Tiafoe’s Australian Open look? Reached for remark by way of e mail, she stated: “Full of spirit like the man who wears it.”