Counting down the best fashion of 2018: Part II

Style points go only so far. The ATP and WTA elite, and players at all levels, are more consumed with fashioning blistering forehands and hitting lines cleanly than the clean lines of garb they may wear outside the confines of any 78' x 27' (36' in doubles) court.

This season saw quite a few hits and you can see Nos. 10-No. 6 here. To count down to No. 1, keep reading:

5

Tiafoe-yes!

Only someone with the panache of Frances Tiafoe could pull off an audacious look such as Nike's US Open mix of orange and navy-to-midnight blue, replete with diagonal lines. The look wasn't stadium-shattering in how it was discussed, but it was ready-to-wear and yet flashy enough to make everyone hark back to 1990s Andre Agassi garb. That's a victory.

4

Public Dancer

Sporting a tutu, Serena Williams created a ballyhooed style moment after moment over seven matches at the US Open. It wasn't just because Louis Vuitton's Virgil Abloh designed her Nike dresses. It wasn't just because it was her, the GOAT, in them. It was because everything was warmly calculated–from the color choices to the faux–off-shoulder figure-skating motif to how the day- and night-session looks were going to photograph when Williams was in motion. I termed this a fashion fault at the time; I was wrong.

3

I Want Candy

Grigor Dimitrov defied the style gods at the Australian Open, and was a vision for having risked it. As I wrote at the time, "This kit is solely for a player chock-full of personality; for the Haus of Swoosh, thankfully, the Grigorious One is precisely that pro."

2

Ray of Light

Monica Puig was a sight to behold Down Under, with an Ellesse dress that begged for photography. This was off-the-rack fast fashion meets sunny elegance, and the world will always be better for it. Still the most inspired player-sponsor combo that tennis has, perhaps even since those 1970s and '80s halcyon days of court style.

1

The Lioness, the Stitch & the Wardrobe

It was the catsuit hissed about 'round the world, and yet Williams and those who relish people who step outside the style box and then stomp on it knew something the haters didn't. As is her wont, Williams was going to once again pierce society's mainstream, the epicenter of pop culture, just by wearing a particular garment. That she did so in Paris, a fashion mecca, was perfection. That it generated the press it did months before having a second life when the French tennis federation's president spouted off about its lack of viability moving forward in his tournament, you knew it was a look for all of time. It stopped people in their tracks to look and learn about it. That's brilliant, and meowtrageous.

It's your turn, armchair fashionistas: Share away on Twitter, tagging *@TENNIS* and/or *@jonscott9*, to discuss further the best fashions of 2018.