Outfit of the Day: Elena Rybakina lets her new Yonex kit do all the talking at Roland Garros

Is it feeling a bit chilly in Paris this week?

We’re not talking about Daniil Medvedev, or his layered-up look during a late-night first-round match at Roland Garros. This time it's about calm and cool Elena Rybakina, who let her new Yonex kit do all the talking amid a frosty press conference in Paris.

The No. 4 seed is well-known for her quiet demeanor and understated celebrations, serenely powering past opponents to amass eight career titles—including a Grand Slam crown at 2022 Wimbledon and her most recent victory on the clay-courts of Stuttgart. She put on another clinical performance on Tuesday at Roland Garros, where she fired 36 winners and dropped serve only once en route to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Greet Minnen on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

While her sharp tennis caught everyone’s attention, so too did her on-court look, as Rybakina was seen rocking a new cream-colored dress by Yonex, featuring olive contrasts and pops of burnt orange details.

The look set her apart from the rest of Team Yonex—a roster that includes Casper Ruud, Hubert Hurkacz and Caroline Garcia—who have been seen wearing the brand’s 2024 Paris Collection in orange and olive, fueling speculation that Rybakina’s unique sand-colored dress could have been a custom fit.

After all, the look wasn’t featured in Yonex’s pre-tournament promotions, and the dress doesn't seem to be available online. In fact, Rybakina’s debut on Tuesday gave tennis fans their first glimpse of the new apparel—following in the style of Nike’s custom kit roll-outs for Naomi Osaka, or New Balance’s in-the-moment unveiling of Coco Gauff’s signature shoes, but without the coordinated marketing push.

It’s hard to tell if that was intentional though, because when asked in press if it was indeed a custom kit, Rybakina at first seemed to not appreciate the question before wryly shutting down the line of questioning altogether.

“These colors? These colors I didn't choose,” she replied. “It was the brand who chose for me, so some other questions?”

At world No. 4, Rybakina is Yonex’s highest-ranked head-to-toe athlete—meaning that she also uses the brand’s VCORE 100 racquet and Eclipsion shoes in competition. As a Grand Slam champion and Top 5 fixture, it wouldn’t surprise tennis style watchers at all if the Kazakh did start getting her own kits—a process that doesn’t always involve creative input, but one that usually signals a player’s growing marketability. (See: Aryna Sabalenka’s one-off custom Nike outfit at the 2023 US Open.)

Read more: Geared Up: Elena Rybakina fashions her big-hitting game in head-to-toe Yonex

With little promo from Yonex and next to no comment from Rybakina, though, the entire situation feels confusing at best and like a sign of behind-the-scenes tensions at worst.

Not keen to discuss one of the best women’s tennis kits of the tournament, Rybakina seemed to be unimpressed by the range of questions after her first-round too. When asked about everything from the conditions, to rivalry against Sabalenka, to the upcoming Olympic Games—that will see the tennis event held at the same venue—the 24-year-old kept her answers short and frequently declined to elaborate, at one point simply lamenting, “The questions are quite the same, so I don't know what to say anymore.”

Rybakina’s tense interaction with the press caught the attention of social media, triggering an ongoing debate about players’ press obligations versus the media’s obligations to keep things interesting for them.

But for Rybakina’s part, the No. 4 seed continued her progress undisturbed as she reached the second round in Paris, where she will face Arantxa Rus on Court Suzanne Lenglen on Thursday. The Dutch player toppled three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4 to advance.