Taylor Fritz weighs in on tennis’ fashion-on-court debate
The American discusses his Wimbledon walk-on look, fatherhood, and the family dynamics behind his career.
Since Naomi Osaka walked onto court at the Australian Open wearing couture (read about her latest look here), there’s been an ongoing debate about whether fashion-forward entrances are good for tennis. Fans and insiders have largely fallen into two camps: they either love it or hate it, with remarkably little middle ground.
This week at Wimbledon, a few men have found themselves part of that conversation, albeit in a more understated way. Both Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz leaned into a bit of Roger Federer cosplay, walking onto court in tailored looks. Fritz, in particular, arrived wearing trousers with zip-away legs, a suit jacket, and a scarf before changing into his match kit.
Having heard plenty of men say they either “don’t get” Osaka’s grand entrances or, for some inexplicable reason, find them irritating, I was curious where Fritz landed on the debate.
“I don’t know where I stand on it,” he told me, explaining that the idea came from Boss—his apparel sponsor since 2024—and he was willing to give it a try. “I wasn’t 100% sure how I felt, but after seeing the pictures after the match, I feel like it looked alright.”
As far as attention-grabbing figures on tour go, Fritz—a prototypical California boy if there ever was one—generally prefers to keep things low-key. Beyond the occasional shirt-biting or self-directed eye-roll when a match is slipping away, he’s rarely one to court attention.
At the same time, he’s proven more willing than many of his peers to experiment with fashion. He walked in Boss’s runway show in Milan two years ago and has regularly taken part in the ATP’s tunnel walks initiative, at one point arriving in a ‘70s-inspired lavender suit that stood out from the sea of beige looks.
Still, he admitted the extra attention can add pressure.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said when asked by Ben Rothenberg whether the outfit made him more nervous. “You show up in a full outfit and get snipped in the first round, you look really stupid.”
He joked that he’d been having exactly that conversation with Frances Tiafoe, who has also been wading into the fashion waters this week in a custom white Lululemon tracksuit.
“We were making the joke, like, you can’t walk out with an outfit and go out in the first round. It just looks so bad.”
Fritz avoided that fate, at least for now, and said we’ll probably be seeing the suit again over the next two weeks.
The fashion conversation eventually gave way to something more personal.
Asked about the challenges of being a father on tour in light of Serena Williams’ return to professional tennis, Fritz offered a candid response about balancing life on the road with raising his son.
Become a paid subscriber to read Fritz's thoughts on fatherhood, bringing his son on tour, and the role his tennis-expert parents play during tournaments.
