New York (AFP) – Two-time champion Naomi Osaka made a triumphant, tearful return to the US Open on Tuesday, beating 10th-seeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2 a year after wondering if she would be back. Japan’s Osaka missed last year’s US Open after giving birth to her daughter Shai, and the former world number one is still trying to kick her return to the sport into top gear. But she was dialed in against 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko, firing 19 winners to wrap up the victory in just 63 minutes.
Osaka took the court in a bouncy tulle skirt and bow-bedecked jacket — shedding both to play in a ruffly green dress, the outfit a nod to “Japanese and Harajuku culture,” she said. The playful outfit belied the emotions she was feeling. “I was trying not to cry when I was walking out,” Osaka said, tearing up during her post-match on-court interview. “Last year I was watching Coco (Gauff) play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again,” she said. “I didn’t know if I could … just to win this match and just to be in this atmosphere means so much to me.”
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It was Osaka’s first win over a top-10 player in four years. She has made two quarter-finals at tour events in 2024 but has yet to progress beyond the second round at the majors. None of the other three, she said, stirs her like the US Open. “It’s like a combination of a lot of different things,” Osaka said. “I grew up here, so just seeing kids, and then remembering my daughter, but seeing kids coming and watching me play and just remembering that I was a kid … made me very emotional. Just seeing the stadium really full, it meant a lot, because I was, like, ‘Oh, I hope people come watch me play.”
Ostapenko was a tough first-round draw for Osaka, who is now ranked 88th and received a wildcard into the tournament. While she found it “stressful” in the early going, Osaka said facing top players was, in fact, liberating. She held a match point against Iga Swiatek before falling to the world number one at the French Open.
“I’m not sure if it’s motivation or if I feel like I have no other choice but to play well, and then it gets rid of all the expectations and all the pressure I put on myself, because I know, like, no matter what, the tennis is going to be really great tennis, even if I win or lose. That’s kind of my mindset whenever I play seeded players or really good players,” said Osaka, who next faces Czech Karolina Muchova.
© 2024 AFP
