Naomi Osaka and the gravity of a superstar at the US Open

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NEW YORK – On Tuesday afternoon, the world number 88, in the main draw of the US Open as a wild card, destroyed the tenth seed Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of the US Open.

In theory that sounds like a shocking win, but the wildcard in question is Naomi Osaka, a two-time champion here and one of the tournament’s biggest draws.

Osaka may be introverted by nature, but she has the gravitas of a superstar, even as a wild card. From her sensational outfit – which on Tuesday consisted of a custom-made green tennis dress and a large green bow on her jacket – to her striking power, she had enough to take Ostapenko to a 6-3, 6-2 in just over a time. to defeat. o’clock.

Flushing Meadows is most associated with her two greatest triumphs. She won the US Open title here in 2018 and 2020, beating Serena Williams in the first final in a famously boisterous occasion – through no fault of Osaka – to announce herself as a star. But three years ago it was the site of a breaking point. She threw her racket several times and was given a code violation for firing a ball into the crowd during an excruciating defeat to Canada’s Leylah Fernandez. When asked what happened, she said: “I don’t know exactly why.”

“Lately I’ve been feeling very anxious when things don’t go my way,” she said.

In the three years since, during which Osaka has continued to transcend tennis because of her openness to discussing its impact on her mental health, Osaka had not won a match at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

She returned to the sport in late December after giving birth to her daughter Shai, and when she defeated Ostapenko, she looked to the sky as tears flowed, overwhelmed by the emotion of her first victory in New York since 2021. There was a lot to process. , but what actually got Osaka going was back to her childhood.

“It was a combination of a lot of different things,” she said after her win.

“I grew up here, so just seeing kids, and then thinking about my daughter, but also seeing kids coming and watching me play… And just the memory of being a kid, I think, for a long time ago, made me very emotional,” Osaka said.

Her thoughts also went back to this time last year, when Osaka, with her daughter, just two months old, watched from the stands as Coco Gauff en route to winning the title. Osaka did not yet know whether she could recapture the level that made her a two-time champion here, took her to number 1 in the world and gave her two more Grand Slam titles, both in Australia.

That feeling persisted through much of 2024, when she began her comeback on New Year’s Eve after a 15-month absence from tour. The first half of the season saw some promising results, including a stormy French Open match with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, but the past few months have been tough. They have led to introspection.

After a disappointing loss in Cincinnati’s qualifiers to Ashlyn Krueger, Osaka reopened.

“My biggest problem right now isn’t losing, but my biggest problem is that I don’t feel like I’m in my body.”

Osaka, who edged out Arthur Ashe after winning the 2020 title, has opened up about her struggles in returning to tennis (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

It was a surprising admission and perhaps reflected the pressure Osaka felt. All year long, the message from those close to her had been that the former world number 1 should not be judged on the promise of the clay and grass swings in which she found her feet, but on the summer hard court season.

On her favorite surface, Osaka would come alive.

“It’s almost like you have a deadline and you have to bang at midnight to make it,” Osaka said Tuesday of the shrinking window she has to deliver on hard courts this year. Until Tuesday, her best individual performance had remained that brilliant evening match at the French Open, where she achieved a match point against Swiatek. In the two biggest hard court events prior to the US Open, Osaka lost in the second round at the Canadian Open and subsequently failed to qualify for Cincinnati.

Although Osaka gave herself the grace to return to the tour after giving birth, she was impatient and worried. She compared her discomfort on the job to how she had felt in general postpartum. Desperate to feel competitive again, that feeling returned on Tuesday.

The Louis Armstrong Stadium was buzzing with anticipation after Osaka’s two-year absence. A standout match against Ostapenko, a top-10 player who can come alive on the biggest occasions – and has an unbeaten record against Swiatek – only added to the feeling that this match, like Osaka and Swiatek’s meeting in Paris in the second round, would suit a late-stage occasion rather than an opener. Osaka, world number 88 or not, maintains the seriousness of everything she has done in the sport, regardless of her ranking.

The match started evenly, but from the moment Osaka broke out at 4-3 in the first set there was no longer any doubt about the outcome. She began hitting her forehand with increasing freedom and venom; Ostapenko, a former French Open champion, had no answer.

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Osaka celebrated the points with loud “come us” and fist pumps and the crowd matched her noise and energy. In what was an excellent display of controlled aggression, she did not lose her serve throughout and knocked down nine aces to secure a first victory over a top-10 opponent in more than four years. After Osaka clinched victory with an on-court forehand winner, she sat down and covered her face with a towel as tears flowed out.

“Just the fact that the stadium was really full meant a lot because I thought, ‘Oh, I hope people come and see me,’” she said afterwards.

She followed up that bit of disarming modesty by throwing down the gauntlet in the most softly spoken and understated way imaginable.

“I feel like this court is my home – it gives me so much more confidence.”

She also had extra motivation to beat Ostapenko on Tuesday, knowing that if she did, she would get the chance to wear the different outfit she had ready for the tournament. “That was very important to me,” Osaka said with a smile.

The question is where this run will lead. Osaka will next face last year’s semi-finalist Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic with another chance at victory. Before she does all that, she can enjoy a win against a top-level opponent and the US Open can once again enjoy the appeal of a tennis superstar.

(Top photo: Robert Prange/Getty Images)