SEPT 19 - 21, 2025 | SAN FRANCISCO
Laver Cup players know how to orchestrate a walk-out onto a tennis court. It turns out many also can pull off a different kind of walk, strutting fashion runways the world over or strolling their way through photo shoots.
As tennis continues to define fashion trends in the world of sports and leisure—as the sport has done for decades—the world’s top tennis athletes are also serving style looks in the world of high fashion.
Laver Cup knows how to celebrate it.
The Laver Cup’s Opening Night Gala, a black-tie event held the Thursday evening before the start of the competition, allows the international flavor of fashion to shine. Sponsored this year by BOSS—the Official Formal Wear Sponsor—there’s more than the German-based fashion house involved in the mix, although American Taylor Fritz has set a high bar, having walked the Milan Fashion Week runway for BOSS in 2024, pulling off a blue button down, navy blazer and green overcoat during the show.
“Tennis is a global sport,” Fritz says about the flavor of fashion in tennis, “and while performance is a huge part of it, lifestyle and fashion brands are realizing how much impact the sport has.”
Inside the Laver Cup locker room, fashion’s influence is hard to miss. Fritz has his well-known BOSS connection (both on the court and off it), while Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz has served as a “house ambassador” for Paris giant Louis Vuitton.
“The sport of tennis is the perfect platform for fashion,” says Laver Cup Chairman Tony Godsick, noting it’s played in every major market around the globe. “The players have so many platforms to showcase fashion, whether it’s on court, in press conferences or behind the scenes. Add social media into that, and suddenly fans see the full picture, from what players wear on the court to what they wear at events or traveling.”
Tennis being an individual sport gives athletes the freedom to express themselves in a way that is uniquely them. “The Opening Night Gala fits perfectly into the ethos of today’s player because it’s one of the rare moments each year where you see them step out of their tennis gear, put on tuxedos and really showcase themselves in a different way,” Godsick says. “Having BOSS as one of our main partners elevates that even further. They’re a true global fashion brand.”
Tennis has long been a trend-setter in the world of fashion. From the early days of lawn tennis in England, tennis cut a fashionable silhouette. That influence helped create the world of athletic apparel—Rod Laver, the event’s namesake, was one of the first to have a signature sneaker in his name—that continued to influence off-court style and looks.
Former Team Europe captain Bjorn Borg carved a fresh perspective, inspiring a 1990s-born Swedish fashion label using his name. Current Team World captain Andre Agassi really pushed 1980s and 1990s tennis fashion into the mainstream discussion with his bold on-court look.
The Borg and Agassi influence helped evolve the sport’s discussion, one that Roger Federer, one of the Laver Cup founders, helped shift from on the court to the elegance and luxury off the court. He was the first male tennis player to hit the pages of Vogue in 2004 (Serena and Venus Williams were the first tennis players, appearing as teenagers in 1998). Federer then built a famous relationship with fashion—and friendship with Anna Wintour, the now-retired Vogue editor—that spread throughout culture.
While female tennis stars continued to appear in fashion magazines aplenty over the last couple of decades, the men’s discussion beyond Federer has more recently started to take shape. Former Team Europe player Matteo Berrettini became known for his BOSS style and runway walks; This year, Vogue’s pages for the first time featured two separate male tennis players, first Ben Shelton, an On-sponsored athlete from the United States, and later Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Along with high fashion has come luxury accessories. Rolex, a major tennis supporter, has a fine-tuned lineup of tennis players, including 2025 Laver Cup athletes Alcaraz, Fritz, Brazilian Joao Fonseca and Danish star Holger Rune. And Federer has an eyewear collection with Oliver Peoples.
Today, the ATP Tour has made it a clear focus to amplify the glamor and fashion appeal of its players. Brands once considered fully focused on performance have started to blur the lines. Laver Cup sponsors On, Uniqlo and Wilson, which recently pushed into high-performance wear with its Wilson Sport Professionals Collections, help elevate on-court looks and give players differing perspective.
For Fritz, joining those worlds together was part of his reasoning for partnering with BOSS. “It was a major part of my decision,” he says about the focus on fashion and ability to affect culture. It’s a path Federer helped clear after the likes of Laver, Borg and Agassi blazed it.
Since 2017, Laver Cup has embraced the influence and international flavor of tennis fashion, helping bring it to life at the Gala by giving players a chance to walk out in style.
