{"id":57431,"date":"2026-08-26T00:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/57431\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:26:33","slug":"aryna-sabalenkas-u-s-open-jewelry-is-a-love-letter-to-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/57431\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s U.S. Open Jewelry Is a Love Letter to New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Aryna Sabalenka won the U.S. Open<\/a> last year, she did so in bespoke Material Good jewelry<\/a>, wearing diamond drop earrings featuring eight stones, nodding to her eighth time competing in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried when she won,\u201d says Atara Lev, Material Good\u2019s Head of Design. \u201cI mean, obviously I was so happy that she won, and it was a very intense game. But it\u2019s such a visceral thing: Here is this world-class athlete who decided, \u2018I like Material Good enough that I want to wear them on this world stage while I play in the ultimate tennis competition.\u2019 Then all of a sudden she was raising the trophy and the earrings were there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2025Elsa\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka kisses the winner\u2019s trophy.<\/p>\n

At every Grand Slam since that U.S. Open win\u2014this year\u2019s Australian Open, Roland Garros<\/a>, and Wimbledon\u2014Sabalenka has worn a custom Material Good suite. \u201cWe really work in tandem with her to create something very specific for her playing on the court and her vibe and style,\u201d says Teresa Panico, the jewelry house\u2019s Director of Marketing. \u201cShe\u2019s very adventurous with her jewelry, with her style in general, but she\u2019s not scared of color and big pieces so we can get really fun and playful with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds, \u201cWe love bespoke. We create pieces around\u2014we listen to our clients, we take everything into consideration and give it our spin and our edge. We love to create things for people. So we really wanted to make that part of the process with her. It\u2019s been so great because she\u2019s loved everything. It\u2019s been an honor. It really has. It\u2019s been a dream come true for us and for the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, Lev and Panico reveal new insights into their partnership with Sabalenka and discuss her 2026 U.S. Open jewelry:<\/p>\n

What does it mean to enter the sports jewelry world\u2014especially as the brand designing for the top-ranked women\u2019s tennis player?<\/p>\n

Teresa Panico: We\u2019ve always loved tennis, the whole team, and we\u2019ve always actually wanted to get into that world and we just never knew how to. We\u2019ve talked about it internally in our marketing team for a long time: How can we do something at the U.S. Open? Who can we style? Honestly, when it happened so organically, it was fate. We ran with it. When [Sabalenka] came into the Material Good boutique for the first time, that wasn\u2019t the intention. She came in for something completely different and we just hit it off with her.<\/p>\n

When she left, we were all so excited because she\u2019s very much the Material Good girl. She loves jewelry. She\u2019s adventurous. She\u2019s very passionate about luxury. So that was really exciting for us. It was like, oh my god, we\u2019re getting on this world stage of athleticism, which is so cool, but she\u2019s also so on brand for us in the sense that she is [Material Good] in her day-to-day life\u2014and she lives it on the court too.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve designed bespoke suites for every Grand Slam this year. How much do you consider her kits when you\u2019re designing the jewelry?<\/p>\n

Atara Lev: We were given access to her entire year\u2019s worth [of Nike kits] ahead of time. We had to consider everything about every single kit. Most notably: All of the necklines. Aryna loves necklaces. She specifically requested a bunch of really insane necklaces. This year\u2019s kits all had quite high necklines. In the case of Australian Open, it was a very rigid zip neckline.<\/p>\n

\"2026Darrian Traynor\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s kit at the Australian Open featured a high zip.<\/p>\n

So there was a lot of deliberation about how to make pieces that would still stand out against these very high necklines. Or again, with Australian Open and also Wimbledon, these sort of V-shapes\u2014so to get something that would sit properly, especially as she was jumping around, and not keep landing funny on a collar or not get lost, basically. That was an interesting thing to work around.<\/p>\n

\"2025Sarah Stier\/\/Getty Images\"TOPSHOT-TENNIS-AUS-OPEN\"PAUL CROCK\/\/Getty Images\"2026Dan Istitene\/\/Getty Images\"DayBSR Agency\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In terms of earrings and having these high necklines\u2014and she loves a big earring, she loves a drop dangly earring\u2014so it would be too much if she had a necklace and a collar and an earring. So there was that as well.<\/p>\n

Specifically thinking about her U.S. Open kit, what were you considering with this suite?\"ColorfulMaterial Good<\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s U.S. Open suite.<\/p>\n

AL: It\u2019s our boldest yet. It had the highest neckline yet, so I really wanted something that would stand out. It also is the U.S. Open\u2014Material Good\u2019s flagship is in New York, so the U.S. Open for us is our home game. We wanted something that would just be so wow. Especially it\u2019s at the end of all of these tournaments. We really wanted to cap the year off and really have a bang moment.<\/p>\n

Her [kit] is quite basketball inspired. New York is very known for outdoor courts and hoops, especially the old school in the \u201880s, everybody playing outside. At Material Good, we have delved recently into estate pieces, so I knew I wanted to combine something from that. I\u2019d been surrounded by all of these retro estate pieces, so I was pulling a lot of inspiration from there. I wanted something big. I wanted something bold. I wanted to match the energy, especially the energy of the kit. It has a lot going on. It\u2019s really fun. It\u2019s really playful. I wanted to match the energy of the city and take the city into consideration. So all these things combined landed into this suite.<\/p>\n

\"TENNIS-USA-OPEN-MIXEDTIMOTHY A. CLARY\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka first wore the jewels while playing mixed doubles with Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n

What was the inspiration for the multicolor U.S. Open 2026 suite?<\/p>\n

AL: I\u2019m a New Yorker; I was born in Queens. I really wanted to showcase the heart of the city, and what does everyone associate with New York? It\u2019s a melting pot. Lots of different people from lots of different places all over the world. The stones are reflective of that. It\u2019s multiple different shapes, multiple different colors, and they\u2019re sourced from all different locations in the world. So you have Nigeria and Tanzania and Cambodia and Burma and Mozambique and all these different places where these stones come from, and they\u2019re all united in this one piece.<\/p>\n

\"GoldMaterial Good<\/p>\n

The necklace features sapphires, tourmaline, garnet, zircon, spinel, chrysoberyl, and tanzanite, a total of 83.20 carats. \u201cIt\u2019s very colorful. It\u2019s very juicy. There were materials used that I\u2019ve never even thought of touching before,\u201d says Lev.<\/p>\n

In terms of construction, like all of the other suites, it needed to be something she could play in, even though it\u2019s big. It can\u2019t be too heavy. It can\u2019t be flipping up and hitting her in the face. It needs to not trap in sweat because she\u2019s sweating. But we still want it to be true to Material Good and the way Material Good constructs things, and it\u2019s not going to feel flimsy. It\u2019s not going to feel like air. So it has a really nice heavyweight feel to it. There is negative space in between all the little gold bars of the settings.<\/p>\n

\"GoldMaterial Good<\/p>\n

The bracelet features sapphires, tourmaline, garnet, zircon, spinel, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, and tsavorite, a a total of 28.36 carats.<\/p>\n

\"ColorfulMaterial Good<\/p>\n

The earrings\u2014studs with a drop jacket\u2014use sapphires, spinel, tourmaline, and garnet. They can be worn as detachable studs or as full-length earrings.<\/p>\n

The bracelet, we don\u2019t want anything that\u2019s too distracting or feels too heavy for her or is flopping around. So this entire year [with bracelets], we\u2019ve been like, \u2018What length, what length, what length?\u2019 We take the length into consideration so that it\u2019s not sliding up and down [Sabalenka\u2019s arm]. Again, keeping it as lightweight as possible while still maintaining that nice feeling. And the earrings as well, to keep them lightweight. She loves a dangle earring, but she\u2019s moving, so we can\u2019t have anything that\u2019s smacking her in the face or is pulling on her.<\/p>\n

Was there anything you learned from her wearing Material Good at the French Open, Wimbledon, or Australia that you\u2019ve incorporated into this suite?<\/p>\n

TP: The necklace length! She\u2019s worn a lot of things layered; she likes to layer stuff. We do this stuff [in New York] and she\u2019s in Europe most of the time, so we can\u2019t fit her for anything. So the amount of conversations and testing and then switching chains, because when it gets to her, she\u2019s going on the court with it. So the amount of times that we\u2019ve been in a panic mode just being like, \u2018Oh my gosh, this isn\u2019t right.\u2019 Which is why we\u2019ve given her the optionality in case, worst-case scenario, she has this option or this option and either will be okay.<\/p>\n

\"TOPSHOT-TENNIS-AUS-OPEN\"DAVID GRAY\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka showing off her earrings at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

AL: The first time she wears [the jewelry] on court is not a major game. She wears it to practice and sees how she feels in it. So we specifically made stud earrings with drop jackets so that if she ended up not liking the drop, she could take off the drop and just wear the stud.<\/p>\n

TP: When she put them on, we were like, \u2018No, you don\u2019t have to wear those if you don\u2019t want.\u2019 Immediately, she was like, \u2018No, I\u2019m definitely wearing these to play.\u2019 We\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, okay!\u2019 A strong reaction. So right then and there we\u2019re like, \u2018Okay, she\u2019s not scared, so great.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"DayBSR Agency\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Her anklet at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

AL: I kept pushing it and pushing it. The anklet for Wimbledon was also so good. I was like, \u2018So how would you feel about maybe potentially….\u2019 because she\u2019s running and she\u2019s jumping, and she was like, \u2018Oh my God, yeah, I would love that.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Okay, great. You get an anklet.\u2019<\/p>\n

When you think about fine jewelry, you don\u2019t necessarily jump to how it will work on an athlete or in a professional tennis setting. What have you learned from Aryna about what fine jewelry can be?\"WTARobert Prange\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sabalenka in Material Good earlier this month.<\/p>\n

AL: Jewelry isn\u2019t a serious thing. It\u2019s fun and it\u2019s emotional and it\u2019s something that people get at one of their biggest moments in life. It\u2019s something that people use to treat themselves. It\u2019s something that people use to treat other people. It\u2019s not serious. This is not the queen\u2019s jewels. We are very, very big into that: No matter the piece, if you\u2019re buying it, you should wear it and you should wear it wherever. You should wear it on a tennis court and you should wear it to the grocery store. It\u2019s not meant to sit in a safe. Jewelry that sits in a safe is the saddest thing. We\u2019re very, very much about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJewelry that sits in a safe is the saddest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the ultimate testament to that: Yes, you can wear our jewelry as a professional athlete on a world stage, sweating and jumping and running, and it doesn\u2019t look necessarily out of place. It\u2019s meant to be part of it. And then you can wear it off the court to dinner and press and to the club. And that\u2019s at the core of how we want our jewelry to be worn.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re watching Aryna walk onto court in Arthur Ashe Stadium wearing the suite, what are you watching for? <\/p>\n

AL: I like watching it move around and bounce around because that\u2019s what it was meant to do. Otherwise, just looking for her to win.<\/p>\n

TP: I\u2019m the worrywart of the team.<\/p>\n

AL: How many times has Teresa texted me and been like, \u2018Are you sure it\u2019s going to be okay?\u2019<\/p>\n

TP: Are you sure it\u2019ll hold up? Are the connections tight enough? Did we double-check everything? Connections are very secure, but you never know. It\u2019s handmade, it\u2019s metal. We try and do everything we can, but sometimes it\u2019s\u2014<\/p>\n

AL: You know what? That\u2019s how the tennis bracelet<\/a> got famous.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Emily Burack (she\/her) is the Deputy Digital Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Aryna Sabalenka won the U.S. Open last year, she did so in bespoke Material Good jewelry, wearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[217,3105,922,21516,2445,21607,298,303,918,9624,21606,10689,921],"class_list":["post-57431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aryna-sabalenka","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-collection-jewelry","tag-collection-tennis-news","tag-collection-u-s-open-2026","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-c59a6851-ee88-4d47-b2e0-7e6d0cbaddaa","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-10","tag-shorttitle-sabalenkas-bespoke-u-s-open-jewelry","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-sporting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}