Serena Williams made a terrific return to the French Open as the American steamrolled Kristyna Pliskova 7–6 (4), 6–4 in her opening game at Roland Garros on Tuesday. The straight-set victory over her Czech rival was her first Grand Slam match since she gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, last September.

However, more than her comeback win, it’s her black spandex Nike bodysuit, featuring a red stripe across her abdomen, that set many tongues wagging.

Williams took to Twitter after her win and wrote: “Catsuit anyone? For all the moms out there who had a tough recovery from pregnancy—here you go. If I can do it, so can you. Love you all!!”

Apart from inspiring many new mothers as well as prospective mothers across the globe, it’s believed that the former world number one made a subtle statement with her symbolic ‘supermom’ attire to the tennis bosses as she was dropped to 453rd spot in the WTA rankings despite holding the top spot before going for the maternity leave, which is treated as an injury by women’s tennis governing body. 

One of the prominent voices against that bizarre rule is one of Williams’s rivals, Maria Sharapova, who told the AP that she “[likes] to see that [rule] change” and that a woman should not be held back after becoming a mother.

Incidentally, Williams was 8 weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January last year. Meanwhile, her husband Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of content aggregator Reddit, sang her praises on social media with an Instagram post that read: “Supermama is back. Second time is even better. Is that Vibranium? #RG18#catsuit.”

Known for her penchant for fashion, the younger of the Williams sisters is well-known for wearing unusual, unique and colorful attires both on and off the court. 

Her black lycra catsuit at the 2002 US Open caused quite a stir, while her denim skirts and knee-high boots at the 2004 US Open irked the tournament officials who stopped her wearing the boots during matches. Her white trench coat during warm-ups ahead of her opening match under the sun at the 2008 Wimbledon also set several tongues wagging among the traditionally conservative spectators at SW19. 

Be it her deal of 40 million US dollars for a line with Nike or her own line of designer apparel, "Aneres" (her first name spelled backward), the certified nail technician with her nail collection with a company called HairTech has been making regular appearances on the glitzy glamour pages of several fashion magazines alongside her extraordinary on-court exploits. She became the first black female athlete to be featured on the cover of Vogue in April 2015.

Serena’s sartorial sense was recently on display at the recent Cannes Film Festival, where she brought the shimmer to the starry red carpet in a sparkling navy dress, as well as the much-talked about Royal Wedding, where she, being a close friend of royal bride Meghan Markle, earned rave reviews from many fashionistas with her blush pink Versace dress, a gorgeous Bvalgari necklace and a sparkling Versace fascinator bedazzled with Swarovski crystals.

Meanwhile, in her quest for the 24th Grand Slam title, Williams has already made a strong statement with her bold black attire and a blazing start to her campaign on the red clay of Roland Garros. Now she will take on 17th seeded Ashleigh Barty in the second round.