As the tennis action heats up at Roland Garros, its fashion influence extended to the WNBA this week when rookie star forward Cameron Brink admitted to taking inspiration from U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff for one of her pre-game outfits.
“I’m wearing my little New Balance tennis set; I want to be like Coco,” Brink confessed in the league’s Wednesday “‘fit check” video posted on social media. Ahead of her team’s game against the Caitlin Clark-led Indiana Fever, Brink paired the set with New Balance sneakers and “old-school socks.”
Brink, who was selected No. 2 by the Los Angeles Sparks out of Stanford University in this year’s WNBA draft, currently leads the league as a rookie in blocks per game.
Both she and Gauff are sponsored by the Boston-based sportswear giant New Balance.
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The two athletes recently starred together in the latest ad spot for New Balance’s “We Got Now” campaign, which debuted in April shortly after the WNBA draft.
Brink’s pregame outfit contributes to the growing trend of off-court “tenniscore” fashion, which has recently taken the pop culture spotlight following the March release of the Hollywood blockbuster “Challengers” and its star Zendaya’s eye-catching promotional looks.
However, according to the sport’s style icons, this practice—taking the preppy, athletic aesthetic typically associated with on-court fashion and incorporating it into everyday wear—has been on the cutting edge long before it became a TikTok sensation.
“Tennis never goes out of style—it’s always trending!” Venus Williams said earlier this year. “I’ve always loved seeing people embracing tennis-core and incorporating it into everyday style in their own unique way. Tennis has long been at the intersection of sports and fashion.”
