The men have caught up: Djokovic in a Lacoste blazer, Fritz in a Hugo Boss suit

It is not only Naomi Osaka and her Kill Bill-style kimono turning heads at Wimbledon. The outfits worn by Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz have drawn attention too: the men and their sponsors are seizing the moment.

Djokovic walks on court in a personalised Lacoste blazer and shorts, Fritz in a white cotton jacket by Hugo Boss, long trousers and a white silk scarf.

“This is the first tournament where the guys have really stepped it up, and it’s good to see,” says Joelle Michaeloff, creative director at the sports brand Wilson. It reflects a growing trend, she says: men are beginning to use clothing as a form of self-expression. “They see what is happening now, and they look back at those iconic moments in Wimbledon history.”

Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam that requires all-white kit, which limits experiments with colour. But it is also where many fashion moments have happened: the white bodysuit by the British designer Ted Tinling in 1985, Roger Federer’s jacket in 2007.

For the sixth seed Fritz, a loud entrance carries its own risks. “I really like not showing off,” he says. “You can’t walk out in a look like that and lose in the first round. That looks really bad.” So far his luck has held: he has reached the third round without dropping a set — so when he rips off the trousers, joined at the sides for a quick change, and plays on in his match shorts, his face is saved. “Boss set the whole thing up. They’re my sponsor, they wanted me to do it. I thought the look was good. So yes, we’d have done it anyway.”

Sponsors are increasingly treating the Wimbledon walk-ons as a marketing opportunity. “The relationship between the athlete and the brand is what is really being played out here, and that is new,” says Michaeloff. Nike and Osaka’s team posted video and images of her kimono before her first match, Hugo Boss promoted Fritz’s suit, and Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk released a second version of the “Marta dress” with Wilson.

Some players are getting more deeply involved in the design process, discussing fabrics, colours, necklines and fit. “Karen Khachanov, for example, wants to discuss everything,” Michaeloff says of the Russian, who has also reached the third round. “He wants to be fashionable, but he also cares how a piece performs in play.”

It does not always come off. Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, once ranked as high as sixth, had his outfit rejected. “It wasn’t white enough,” he said. “There was an option, but I wasn’t allowed.”

Michaeloff compares the Fritz and Djokovic looks to Federer’s, though the roots of the trend go back to the greats of the 1960s and 1970s. “Think of Arthur Ashe — how he dressed, how he showed up. That is long before the current trend, but the momentum and the reach have changed.” Fritz agrees: “I think the women have done more with the walk-on looks, turned it into a show. That’s cool, it’s fun. We’ll see whether the guys do more from here.”

Osaka, for her part, has been raising the fashion stakes at every Grand Slam this year: a black Kevin Germanier skirt at Roland-Garros, a layered tan-and-gold Nike dress inspired by the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, a jellyfish-style walk-on outfit in Australia. “Naomi Osaka’s fashion this year will certainly be seen as an iconic moment of this championship,” says Eleanor Thomas, collections curator at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.