Aryna Sabalenka turned her first U.S. Open match into a high-jewelry moment, stepping on court in a Sabalenka necklace and matching pieces valued at over $400,000. The set was made by Material Good and was built to be seen while she played, not just before the match.
The jewelry weighed over 127 carats and used handcrafted gold bases set with sapphire, tourmaline, zircon, and garnet. Sabalenka is the top-ranked player in women’s tennis, which made the appearance feel less like a side note and more like part of the tournament’s visual economy.
Material Good and 127 Carats
Atara Lev said Sabalenka loves vintage styles, bold colors, and emerald, and noted that emerald is her birthstone. Lev also said Sabalenka is fond of heart motifs, which explains why Material Good designed mismatched heart-shaped sapphire studs for her.
The pieces had to do two jobs at once: make a statement and survive a physically intense match. They swung around as Sabalenka played and glistened with her as she sweat, which is exactly the kind of friction that separates on-court jewelry from display-case jewelry.
Chris Evert and the Tennis Bracelet
1978 still sets the template for this kind of attention on the court. Chris Evert paused a U.S. Open match to look for her fallen diamond wrist-piece and coined the term tennis bracelet, a moment that still hangs over every new attempt to turn matchwear into fashion.
1974 matters too, because Elsa Peretti introduced Diamonds by the Yard for Tiffany & Co. that year, another early marker for tennis fashion’s long relationship with fine jewelry. The newer examples from Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, and Naomi Osaka show the category has moved beyond a single bracelet or pendant into a broader on-court style race.
Naomi Osaka and the Court Runway
Naomi Osaka has already gone viral for making the U.S. Open her runway with the help of Law Roach, while Coco Gauff wore a sapphire C pendant custom-made by Chase Sapphire Reserve and Jennifer Fisher. Amanda Anisimova has an ongoing partnership with Tiffany & Co. for matches, so Sabalenka’s look lands in a field that is already comfortable treating court time as presentation time.
Sunita Kumar Nair put that shift plainly in W Magazine: “Tennis has always been a reflection of what’s going on in society.” She added, “I'm sure it was such an arduous journey for all of these players to get to where they are, and the fact that they can now wear their ice on court is a testament to their diligence.”
The sharper question now is not whether Sabalenka can wear jewelry in competition; she already did. It is which first-round or early-round U.S. Open match will become the reference point for the look, because that is the part the tournament’s style archive will keep returning to.
