{blackbabes} Serena's dress with a message a hit with players

Melbourne (AFP) - Australian Open top seed Serena Williams' fashion sense has once again been making waves on court, with fellow players enthusiastic about the backless dress she sported in her first round match at Melbourne Park.

"Love Serena's outfit," Canadian seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard tweeted about the neon green dress with pink highlights that Williams wore on her opening round win against Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck.

Two-time Australian champion Victoria Azarenka was also a fan, tweeting: "Serena is rocking that outfit! Cut out back #sexy #outfit."

Williams, whose fashion statements in the past have included moon boots and leopard-skin prints, explained that her backless outfits this year were designed to send a message about female empowerment.

"Nike did these wonderful green colours and we decided to do something," she said. "This whole year is about the back and strength and women and power. We wanted to look at my back all year, so all year you'll be seeing my back."

She said the dress showed "you can be beautiful and powerful at the same time".

The five-time Australian Open champion, who is chasing her 19th Grand Slam this year at Melbourne Park, joked that the revealing outfit forced her to watch what she ate.

"I feel like I don't want to eat too much -- one peanut and I'm going to break the dress, so I try not to eat that much," she said.

"Other than that, it depends, sometimes I'm a little nervous (wearing her outfits on court). But this one I think is really good. It's really trendy and young, but at the same time it also has a great message and it's also really nice."