Is fluorescent 'in' at Australian Open?

The Australian Open started with a bang and the stars weren’t hard to miss as most of them were seen wearing loud colours at Melbourne Park.

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In the first Grand Slam of the year players have freedom to wear bold colours and it looked like everyone chose the brightest they could find.

Lime and pink was a popular combination this year – Canada's Eugenie Bouchard sported wristbands to go with her dress and visor.

Australia's rising star Thanasi Kokkinakis led the contest for the boldest player, wearing eye-popping head-to-toe fluorescent assembly.

The 18-year-old from Adelaide, ranked 147th in the world, stunned world No 13 Latvian Ernests Gulbis and served his way out of an early exit of the tennis tournament in a pink and yellow outfit.

Former World No 1 Rafael Nadal stood out on court with his bright pink t-shirt and neon yellow wristband to match his sneakers.

He  told the on-court interviewer after his first-round win that his time away from the tour because of injuries and an appendix surgery had battered his confidence.

The commentator responded by pointing to Nadal's shorts, saying he suspected the Spaniard didn't truly suffer from lack of confidence.

"I don't think many men could pull off this pink reflector," the commentator told Nadal, drawing stadium-wide laughter as he pointed out the neon pink stripe down the side of Nadal's white shorts.

Nadal joined the laughter, saying these were his 'party' shorts for the past couple of months during his time off.

"I just like bright colours," Nadal added. "Australia is a happy country, a sports country. People here bring me positive energy, so it's the right place to wear that."

Sloane Stephens was another to go for the pink and lime combination, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka’s white-fading-to-neon look worked out well for her, but she wasn’t the only one. Local hope Nick Kyrgios went down the same path as Azarenka.

Swiss star Roger Federer stood out in a lime green t-shirt along with Andy Murray in a fetching lime green top.

Russia's Maria Sharapova – always one to lead the way in the tennis fashion stakes – opted for a slightly more subtle burnt orange dress and sun visor.

A large group of women turned up wearing exactly the same thing, a white-fading-to-pink dress by Nike. Like Lucie Hradecka, Sara Errani, Sabine Lisicki , Petra Martic, Klara Koukalova, Roberta Vinci, Shuai Zhang, Petra Kvitova and Taylor Townsend.