Osaka: I’m trying to forget Serena row

Naomi Osaka last night admitted her maiden grand slam victory in last month’s US Open had been soured by the controversy surrounding the final.

Osaka’s win should have been a glorious occasion for the 20-year-old, who beat Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 and looked like she would have won even without the point and game penalties handed to Williams by chair umpire Carlos Ramos.

But, instead, Osaka had to put up with boos from the crowd as she prepared to receive her trophy. Speaking in Beijing yesterday, where she had just beaten Zarina Dyas in her first match of the China Open, she admitted that she still found it difficult to look back on that evening with any pleasure.

“The memory of the US Open is a little bit bittersweet,” Osaka said. “The day after, I really didn’t want to think about it because it was not necessarily the happiest memory for me.

“Of course I’m happy that I won a grand slam. I don’t think there’s anything that can take away from that. But it was so strange, I wanted to just push it to the side.

“Then I played Tokyo [where Osaka was runner-up to Karolina Pliskova]. That was a way to take my mind of it. I’m still trying to take my mind off it a bit. Hopefully, I can do well here, too.”

Williams has avoided talking about Sept 8, except to say that she cannot understand why her coach Patrick Mouratoglou should have been making signals to her. Last week, she announced that she would not be playing again this season.