Rosy day for Osaka

new york: Everything came up roses for Naomi Osaka in the first-round match at the US Open. The two-time champion entered the court Tuesday with sparkly red roses in her ponytail above her red outfit and even a matching Labubu that she named Billie Jean Bling.

Osaka’s tennis looked good, too. The No. 23 seed from Japan beat Greet Minnen 6-3 6-4.

Osaka said the work on her crystalized Nike bubble hem skirt started long ago and the plan for the hair accessory — which she removed before the match — came together more recently.

“It was really elaborate, because the crystals are really hard to do on a performance outfit,” Osaka said.

“I just thought it would be really fun to do a New York under the lights. I’m glad that my first match was a night match, because this outfit was really fun to play. This is my night outfit, so hopefully I’ll wear my day outfit next time.”

She asked her stylist within the last couple weeks about the idea for the ponytail with roses in it.

“I was like, Do you think this is possible?’ Maybe it was two weeks ago,” Osaka said. “Yeah, we kind of just toss ideas around. Obviously the outcome is way better than I could have imagined.”

Rocky start for Coco

Coco Gauff’s first match since enlisting someone to help with her shaky serving got off to a rocky start at the US Open on Tuesday night. She double-faulted in the very first game — and a total of 10 times. She got broken in that game, too — and a total of six times.

The only numbers that truly counted in the end, of course, were the ones on the Arthur Ashe Stadium scoreboard, and those showed that the No. 3-seeded Gauff held on for a 6-4 6-7(2) 7-5 victory over Ajla Tomljanovic to reach the second round at Flushing Meadows. “It wasn’t the best,” Gauff said, “but I’m happy to get through.”

Nothing came easily. Gauff twice led by a break in the second set but couldn’t end things. She went up 5-3 in the third and served for the victory at 5-4, but double-faulted twice in a row and missed a pair of forehands to make it 5-all.

That could have been too much to take. Instead, Gauff steadied herself, broke right back, then was able to serve it out on her second chance to do so, nearly three full hours after the contest began.

“I had so many chances. … I was just like, Eventually, one of these is going to go my way,’” she said.