15 Tennis Questions In regards to the 2025 US Open, Requested and Answered

There have been positively some notable outfit and accent selections in final yr’s play, too (see: Jessica Pegula’s armpit cutouts, Sloane Stephens’s delicate diamond necklace, or Marta Kostyuk’s neon-yellow costume), however Naomi Osaka’s enormous “Brat”-green bows emerged because the undisputed champion. Going into the primary spherical of the 2024 Open, Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion (and two-time US Open winner), confirmed as much as play Jelena Ostapenko carrying a bow-covered bomber jacket, frilly inexperienced skirt, and matching tennis costume—a custom-made, cottage-core-y collab between Nike and the Japanese designer Yoon Ahn. Even her headphones, sneakers, and tennis bag have been adorned, too.

When requested in regards to the distinctive look in her post-match interview, Osaka described it as “maximalist” and stated it was impressed by Harajuku type. Within the second spherical of the match (which resulted in a loss to Karolina Muchova), she debuted a black model of the identical getup. Chatting with The New York Occasions, she defined that dressing up helps increase her psychological well being. “Once I put on what I really feel is an effective outfit, I positively really feel extra comfy,” she stated.

Victoria Azarenka playing tennis at the 2023 US Open

6. The place do the rivals—specifically ladies in skirts—put their tennis balls throughout play?

Talking of tennis skirts, in case you’ve ever donned one earlier than, you most likely already know the reply: There are discreet little pockets in most clothes that may maintain a couple of balls. Nonetheless, as SELF’s health director, Christa Sgobba, has complained up to now, “Our tennis uniforms in highschool did not have pockets!” (So protected to say it’s not a common requirement!)

7. So why is Wimbledon’s costume code so freaking strict?!

Get able to roll your eyes to this point again into your head that they develop into completely lodged there. In an interview with BBC Tradition from 2023, Robert Lake, writer of A Social Historical past of Tennis in Britain, stated this: “White hides sweat one of the best, appears clear, sharp, and tidy, representing goodness (aesthetically) and, given cricket connections, additionally displays upper-middle-class leisure traditionally.” (BRB, making a psychological be aware to look at this yr’s Open carrying my tackiest, most colourful Spandex outfit in a foam Statue of Liberty hat with Cowboy Carter streaming within the background.)

8. Do US Open rivals win prize cash?

Whereas the 2024 Open boasted the most important money allotment for gamers in match historical past ($75 million, a 15% enhance from 2023), the 2025 occasion units the bar even increased: $90 million. The boys’s and ladies’s singles champs will obtain $5 million apiece, a rise of virtually $1.5 million from final yr’s $3.6 mil. Based on Brendan McIntyre, the senior director of company communications for the US Open, all 4 Grand Slam occasions provide equal prize cash for women and men. Nevertheless, the US Open was the primary to make that decision (thanks in no small half to the efforts of tennis legend Billie Jean King and different activists), all the best way again in 1973.

However it’s not simply the victors who take house a test: Second-place winners earn $2.5 million, semifinalists earn $1.26 million, quarterfinalists earn $660,000, and so forth. Even athletes who lose within the first spherical get a little bit (or not-so-little) one thing: $110,000. (Not dangerous!)

9. Do followers must be quiet throughout US Open matches?

The Open’s extra informal look compared to different massive tennis tourneys is mirrored in its general angle, too—the Arthur Ashe Stadium will get famously rowdy. “It is the loudest and possibly probably the most humid situations of all middle courts of all 4 Grand Slams,” Novak Djokovic instructed reporters throughout a press convention in 2023. That yr, the Open welcomed 957,387 followers again for the 20-day occasion, an 8% enhance in attendance from 2022—and people folks wish to occasion, usually to the gamers’ frustration. On the 2022 match, Australian Nick Kyrgios claimed {that a} spectator smoking weed induced his bronchial asthma signs to kick in.