Naomi Osaka demonstrated her growing maturity to fight back against Victoria Azarenka in a compelling US Open final and claim her third Grand Slam title.
Japanese fourth seed Osaka, 22, won 1-6 6-3 6-3 for her second US Open title. Osaka was overwhelmed in the first set and was in danger of trailing 3-0 in the second before recovering to win 10 of the next 11 games to take momentum.
Belarusian Azarenka, playing in her first major final since 2013, lost serve for 5-3 in the decider. Osaka shrieked with joy as she took her second match point, then calmly laid out on the court and stared at the New York sky as she contemplated her latest achievement. Osaka’s level raised considerably as 31-year-old Azarenka was unable to maintain the intensity she showed in a one-sided opening set.
The fightback ensured Osaka, who won the 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open, maintained her record of winning every Grand Slam final she has played in. “I don’t want to play you in any more finals, I didn’t really enjoy that, it was a really tough match for me,” Osaka jokingly told Azarenka.
“It was really inspiring for me because I used to watch you play here when I was younger. I learned a lot, so thank you.”
Osaka’s maiden victory at Flushing Meadows two years ago came in straight sets against Serena Williams in a hostile environment following the American’s infamous argument with umpire Carlos Ramos. This second success could not have been more different. Here she had to fight back from a set down against an inspired Azarenka – and navigate a tricky decider which could have swung either way – on a virtually empty Arthur Ashe Stadium because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“For me, I just thought it would be embarrassing to lose this under an hour,” said Osaka, who will rise to third in the world after her win. Osaka looked a little lost as Azarenka overwhelmed her in a fast start, hitting 13 unforced errors and struggling to cope with the Belarusian’s proactive play and controlled aggression. Draping a towel over her head at changeovers was a sign of Osaka’s concerns. Her attempts to collect her thoughts and regain her composure did not initially work, however.
Another wayward forehand prompted a frustrated Osaka to throw her racquet to the floor in disgust. Eventually, though, the mental resilience which she says she has developed over recent months came to the fore. That resulted in a major momentum shift in her favour as Azarenka threatened to move 3-0 ahead in the second set. A rasping forehand by Osaka proved pivotal, not only in the game, but ultimately in the whole match as she seized control to level. The former world number one maintained that level in the decider to earn a 4-1 lead, but was unable to convert one of three break points to move 5-1 ahead. That might have proved costly when Azarenka immediately put the set back on serve, only for Osaka to battle back again by winning what proved to be the final two games.
Osaka gets the world talking
Not only has Osaka impressed on court during the Cincinnati Masters-US Open bubble in the past month, she has also won many admirers for her activism in the fight against racism and police brutality in the United States. A few days before the start of the US Open, Osaka pulled out of her Western and Southern Open semi-final in protest at the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by police in Wisconsin.
Before her US Open first-round match, she wore a face mask with the name of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot dead by a policeman in March. Osaka, who has Japanese and Haitian parents, and was brought up in the United States, said she had seven masks with seven different names. Her target was to reveal all of them by reaching Saturday’s final and that provided her with extra motivation to win the title, according to her coach Wim Fissette.
“I felt the point was to make people start talking,” Osaka said after her victory. “I’ve been inside the bubble and not sure what’s going on in the outside world. The more retweets it gets, the more people talk about it.”
