Japanese women’s singles tennis star and two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka paid a heart-touching tribute to former NBA superstar Allen Iverson.
The homage was done in her first-round clash with Anastasia Zakharova on Monday at the show court of the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 28-year-old added that she liked Iverson a lot and looked up to him when she was growing up.
Naomi Osaka channels AI at US Open with first-round get-up
Osaka, seeded 13th in the Grand Slam tournament, entered the US Open hard court with a bang, emerging from the tunnel in a long, white skirt and grey, hooded robe featuring newspaper clippings about her.
The Japanese tennis star had everyone in the stadium amazed.
She had her hair done in cornrows under a headband, just like the former NBA MVP, who led the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals in 2001 but fell short to Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
In an interview, Osaka said that the OOTD was the theme requested by her apparel company Nike, saying that she was following what her sponsor wanted her to look going into the tournament.
Osaka met the media during the eve of the tournament on Saturday and wore a shirt with the picture of the six-foot point guard.
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Osaka calls Iverson a ‘trailblazer’
Osaka described Iverson as a trailblazer in sports fashion, whether he wore those iconic clothes intentionally or not.
She added, “I also think the whole conversation around clothes in sports and also just expressing yourself through style, I feel like he’s someone that I look up to in that regard.”
The flashy playmaker saw what Osaka wore and wrote a message to the Japanese star on his Instagram page: “Wow, what an honor!! BIG FAN can’t wait to meet you.”
In her first-round clash with Zakharova, Osaka needed to emulate Iverson’s famously fierce competitiveness to make it to the second round with a 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/3) win.
The Japanese tennis star appeared to be winning the first round with a 5-2 lead in the opening set before Zakharova forced a tiebreak.
The former World No.1 used her experience to close the tiebreak at 8-6.
In the second set, Osaka had another erratic sequence that saw Zakharova recover from 5-3 down to level at 5-5.
Her powerful service game proved to be the difference though and she held to love before overwhelming her first-round opponent in the second tiebreak.
She will next face Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, who defeated Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
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