JAPAN CELEBRATES OSAKA’S TRIUMPH

REUTERS - Japan celebrated Naomi Osaka’s victory over Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final, with fans putting her stunning success down to a steely focus and humble attitude as much as her powerful performances at Flushing Meadows. “Osaka played so well that Serena wasn’t able to play her tennis and she (Williams) got upset,” said Mitsuko Sakai, 63-year-old amateur tennis player who woke up at 5 a.m. on Sunday in Tokyo to watch the final.

“She remained so calm throughout the match” despite the brouhaha, Sakai said.

“I was very impressed by her mental strength. The entire audience seemed to cheering for Serena but Osaka concentrated on the game and won.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe congratulated Osaka on Twitter and thanked her for “giving Japan a boost of inspiration at this time of hardship” - a likely reference to the earthquake that hit the northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday, killing at least 21 people.

Kei Nishikori, who lost in the Men’s semifinals to Novak Djokovic and was runner-up in 2014, posted a video of Osaka lifting the U.S.

I was very impressed by her mental strength. The entire audience seemed to cheering for Serena but Osaka concentrated on the game and won

Open Trophy on his Twitter page along with the hashtag #proud and a Japanese flag.

Watching from Tokyo, 60-year-old tennis fan Kiyoshi Ogawa praised Osaka’s humility: “She tried to make all the attention go to Serena. That’s her beauty.”

Tennis is nowhere near as popular as baseball, soccer or sumo in Japan, and the match was broadcast live only on the Wowow cable channel, not on any major television channel.

Osaka, the daughter of a Haitian father and Japanese mother, is also helping break new ground in Japan as her biracial identity challenges the country’s self-image as a racially homogenous society.