The Luckiest Jewelry in Tennis, Ranked

What turns a piece of jewelry into a lucky charm?

We put that question to Brenley Shapiro, a sport psychology and performance consultant who has spent more than two decades helping athletes perform under pressure, first as the NHL Arizona Coyotes’ inaugural mental performance coach, then as the first in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, and now heading into her 12th season with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes. Her answer: a meaningful piece of jewelry can act as a psychological anchor, calming an athlete’s nervous system and reconnecting them to the memory of a past success.

Why do athletes believe in lucky jewelry?

Sport, Shapiro says, is one of the few things that can’t be scripted. Athletes train for years, but on any given day, the result is still out of their hands. “‘Lucky’ objects can give them back a perceived sense of power and control based on the meaning they assign to them,” she says.

Under pressure, Shapiro explains, the brain can shift into what she calls a threat state, the opposite of a high-performance one. A meaningful piece of jewelry works as an anchor against that. “That connection can bring a sense of psychological safety and security, which helps to calm the nervous system,” she says. “And when the nervous system calms down, they feel more relaxed and are able to focus better and feel more in control.”

What gives a piece that power, Shapiro says, is the memory attached to it. “Wearing a piece of jewelry connected to an important achievement, person, or milestone can bring that memory and feeling back into the present moment,” she says. That belief doesn’t guarantee a win, but it does change how an athlete walks into a match. “If an athlete believes an object is lucky, they may feel calmer and more confident,” she says. “They put themselves in a stronger mental state to perform under pressure.”

We’d noticed the pattern ourselves. Increasingly, tennis players are competing in jewelry that stays on through the biggest moments of a match, and we wanted to see whether that correlated with anything real. We assessed 10 players and their signature pieces, using championship records, imagery from winning moments, search interest and cultural visibility, to test Shapiro’s theory against the data. From Serena Williams’ heart necklace to Aryna Sabalenka’s headline-making jewelry stacks, here’s what we found.

Meet the author

Bianca Hartel is the editor of A Diamond is Forever. She is a qualified journalist and former magazine editor who has spent a decade shaping how people think about fashion, celebrity culture and luxury living.

The luckiest jewelry in tennis index

How to read the index

Each player and piece was scored comparatively from 1 to 10 across four factors:

Major championship titles: total Grand Slam singles titles won.

Championship jewelry association: how consistently the piece was visibly worn during the winning match, trophy presentation or celebration.

Championship jewelry search surge: the biggest spike in Google Trends interest for that player-and-jewelry search term.

Cultural reach: combined social and editorial conversation around the piece over the past 12 months.

Championship records came from official governing bodies, jewelry association was verified against Getty Images archives of winning moments, and search and cultural data came from Google Trends and YouScan. The four scores combine into a raw total out of 40, which were converted to an overall score out of 100.

The top five luckiest jewelry pieces in tennis

These pieces followed players through career-defining wins, sparked search spikes and proved that on the biggest stages, jewelry becomes part of the story.

1. Serena Williams’ heart necklaces

Overall score: 90/100

Serena Williams’ signature jewelry

Look back at any of Williams’ 23 Grand Slam wins and you’ll find a heart somewhere on her person. She’s worn hearts since her first major tournament. “I don’t believe in good luck,” she’s said, “but I feel like every athlete lies when they say that.” By the time she turned the habit into her own diamond jewelry (opens in a new window) line in 2019, nobody needed convincing that her attachment to the motif was more than an accessory. “I am obsessed with hearts,” she told Vogue at the launch. “Pretty much all my matches, 99% of the time, you see me wearing some sort of heart necklace.”

It’s the kind of repetition Shapiro sees often in the athletes she works with. “Rituals create familiarity and consistency, which can be reassuring in an unpredictable performance environment,” she says. “The mind leads the body. If the belief is strong, then the body follows in the same direction.”

Why she ranks No. 1

The heart necklace shows up in 11 of Williams’ 23 Grand Slam wins, spanning her entire career from her first major to her last. No other piece of tennis jewelry in this study has stayed attached to a player across that many years, which is likely why its search spike is the biggest we recorded.

How to channel Williams’ lucky look

Layer a heart pendant with a second, more delicate chain rather than wearing one statement piece alone. Add a thin diamond bangle stacked next to a tennis bracelet for the full Serena effect.

2. Novak Djokovic’s cross necklace

Overall score: 75/100

Novak Djokovic’s signature jewelry

Luck looks different for different people. For Djokovic, a cross pendant, tucked under his shirt for most of a match is chosen not for its craftsmanship or its shine but for what it represents to him. Djokovic carries his Orthodox Christian faith with him onto the court, a meaningful reminder of what he’s playing for.

In an individual sport like tennis, Shapiro says, meaningfulness can matter even more than usual. “Where the athlete manages the competitive experience largely on their own, a meaningful object can bring an added sense of connection within their environment,” she says. “If it connects them to someone special or something important, it creates a sense that the athlete is not entirely alone.”

Why he ranks No. 2

Djokovic has the most Grand Slam titles of anyone in this study (24 to be exact), and his cross appears in 11 of those wins, a track record no other piece in the top five can match.

How to channel Djokovic’s lucky look

A pendant tied to something specific, whether it’s faith, family or a place, will always be more meaningful than a piece chosen for its shine alone. Worn consistently, it becomes part of how people recognize you.

GettyImages 1030401176 — Novaj Djokovic
Credit: Getty Images

3. Aryna Sabalenka’s Material Good custom jewelry suites

Overall score: 73/100

Aryna Sabalenka’s signature jewelry

Sabalenka’s on-court jewelry habit has grown into something much bigger than any one necklace. At the 2025 US Open (the tournament she went on to win) Sabalenka wore a choker set with seven pear-shaped diamonds (opens in a new window) and a red imperial topaz through her semifinal and final matches. At the 2026 Australian Open, it was a necklace centered on a 4.30-carat sapphire surrounded by pavé white diamonds, inspired by Melbourne’s coastline. “The main tactic is to distract my opponents with the sparkles,” she joked after a fourth-round win at the US Open.

Laughs aside, Sabalenka’s penchant for jewelry has real intentionality behind it. “Jewelry is a way that I express myself, both on and off the court,” she’s said. Her engagement ring centers a 12-carat oval diamond (opens in a new window), and Material Good has bejeweled her for every Grand Slam since her 2025 US Open title. “For Aryna, jewelry is a personal ritual, worn with intention both in competition and beyond,” the Soho-based fine jeweler has said of working with the Belarusian player. It’s close to how Shapiro describes the athletes she works with. “Rituals create familiarity and consistency, which can be reassuring in an unpredictable performance environment,” she says.

Why she ranks No. 3

Sabalenka’s jewelry recorded a 100% search surge, tied for the highest in the study. A new custom suite for every Grand Slam keeps her in headlines in a way a single fixed piece can’t.

How to channel Sabalenka’s lucky look

Let the diamonds you wear evolve with the occasion rather than staying fixed. The ritual of putting them on matters more than the piece.

GettyImages 2231187408 — Aryna Sabalenka
Credit: Getty Images

4. Coco Gauff’s signature silver lock necklace

Overall score: 63/100

Coco Gauff’s signature jewelry

Photos from Gauff’s 2023 US Open run show the same necklace across multiple matches: a paperclip chain with a small silver lock pendant. It fits a habit she’s talked about openly since. “Usually I try to wear a necklace during the whole tournament,” she’s said.

Shapiro sees real value in that kind of repetition within a single run. “If they have also worn that same object during previous successful performances, it can become associated with the confidence and focus they felt in those moments,” she says.

Gauff has cycled through different necklaces for different runs, but the habit itself, one necklace, worn every match, until the tournament ends, has stayed constant.

Why she ranks No. 4

Gauff’s necklace recorded a 100% search surge, tied for the highest in the study, evidence that a piece doesn’t need decades of history to catch on. What keeps her below the top three is championship jewelry association: unlike Williams’ or Djokovic’s pieces, which appear across a decade of wins, this necklace has only been tied to one Grand Slam-winning moment so far.

How to channel Gauff’s lucky look

A delicate lock pendant on a fine chain works with almost anything. Wear it daily through a busy stretch rather than saving it for special occasions, that habit is what starts to make it feel lucky.

GettyImages 2144316887 — Coco Gauff
Credit: Getty Images

5. Emma Raducano’s Tiffany & Co. jewelry

Overall score: 60/100

Emma Raducano’s signature jewelry

Raducanu wore diamond, pearl and platinum teardrop earrings and a matching necklace from Tiffany & Co’s. Victoria collection as well as a classic diamond bangle and diamond ring through her entire run to the 2021 US Open title, then kept wearing them long after the trophy was hers.

“It’s such an iconic brand and one that I’ve felt connected to for quite some time,” she said, becoming a brand ambassador weeks later. “I wore the ring, bracelet, earrings, and cross necklace throughout the tournament. These pieces will always be very special to me.” It’s close to a textbook case of what Shapiro describes. “Wearing a piece of jewelry connected to an important achievement, person, or milestone can bring that memory and feeling back into the present moment,” she says. “It can remind athletes what they have overcome, what they are capable of, why they do what they do.”

Why she ranks No. 5

Raducanu’s Tiffany pieces recorded the highest search surge of anyone in the top five, a single unexpected title from an unseeded 18-year-old is exactly the kind of story that drives search interest.

How to channel Raducano’s lucky look

Diamond drop earrings and a diamond bangle are the pieces that carry the look, a delicate pendant and a simple ring can sit alongside them without competing.

GettyImages 1339731907 — Emma Raducano
Credit: Getty Images

Explore the rest of the luckiest jewelry in tennis

03 The Luckiest Jewelry In Tennis Index V3

The meaning behind our lucky jewelry

The luckiest jewelry in tennis isn’t specific to any one definition. As Shapiro puts it, “the object becomes a cue to ignite something the athlete already possesses, rather than something they believe they need to perform.”

For the athletes in this ranking, jewelry carries faith, love, identity and memories of hard-won milestones, gathering greater meaning each time they accompany a defining moment.

Natural diamonds and signature pieces can become part of our own rituals, achievements and celebrations; pieces worn not simply for luck, but for everything they represent and everything they inspire within us.

Can jewelry be lucky? We ranked the most iconic pieces in tennis to find out

Why do athletes believe in lucky jewelry?