Serena Williams Outfit: Black History Month Nike Gear Is Fantastic Tribute

Perhaps as much as her play on the court, Serena Williams' outfits are always a topic of conversation at Grand Slam events. Serena may be donning her most practical and meaningful gear yet at the Australian Open, though, as she is paying homage to Black History Month.

According to Chris Chase of Yahoo! Sports, Serena is wearing a custom-made headband and sneakers that are meant to pay tribute to Black History Month, which is actually in February. The report says that Serena's Black History Month ensemble also features a bag and a jacket.

Serena and her sister Venus Williams are well known for wearing some fairly outrageous or gaudy outfits at times, so it's nice to see Serena making an important statement with her attire in Melbourne. Seeing as fashion is one of her biggest passions, she could have went for style, but Serena instead chose substance.

With that said, she had a little of both in her opening-round victory over Austrian Tamira Paszek, breezing through 6-3, 6-2 after a bit of an inconsistent start. Serena is certainly going to be watched very closely in this tournament after comments she recently made about not loving tennis.

Despite being a 14-time Grand Slam Champion, Serena is known for losing focus and perhaps not fully committing herself at times. Her immense talent eventually won out in her first-round match, but it remains to be seen how well she prepared herself for the Australian Open.

If her outfit choice has any bearing on her mental state then I would have to say that she is pretty locked in. Serena clearly isn't in the Aussie Open to promote some new fashion line or anything to the effect. She's in it to win it, and thanks to her custom Black History Month gear, she can pay tribute to her forefathers at the same time as well.