Osaka wins US Open
Naomi Osaka beats Victoria Azarenka for her 2nd U.S. Open title.
After one errant forehand in the first set of the U.S. Open final, Naomi Osaka looked at her coach in the mostly empty Arthur Ashe Stadium stands with palms up, as if to say, “What the heck is happening?”
In response to another wayward forehand against Victoria Azarenka seconds later, Osaka chucked her racket. It spun a bit and rattled against the court.
Surprisingly off-kilter early Saturday in New York, Osaka kept missing shots and digging herself a deficit. Until, suddenly, she lifted her game, and Azarenka couldn’t sustain her start. By the end, Osaka pulled away to a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback victory for her second U.S. Open championship and third Grand Slam title overall.
“I just thought it would be very embarrassing to lose this in an under an hour,” said Osaka, who laid down on her back on court after winning.
This, then, is what she told herself when things looked bleakest: “I just have to try as hard as I can and stop having a really bad attitude.”
It worked. A quarter-century had passed since a woman who lost the first set of a U.S. Open final wound up winning: In 1994, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario did it against Steffi Graf.
This one was a back-andforth affair. Even after Osaka surged ahead 4-1 in the third set, the outcome was unclear. She held four break points in the next game — convert any of those, and she would have served for the win at 5-1 — but Azarenka didn’t flinch.
Azarenka held there, somehow, and broke to get to 4-3, then stood and stretched during the ensuing changeover.
But Osaka regained control, then covered her face when the final was over.
“I don’t want to play you in more finals,” a smiling Osaka told Azarenka afterward. “I didn’t enjoy that.”
Osaka, a 22-year-old born in Japan and now based in the U.S., won the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open.
“What a game, what an opponent, what a performance from both teams. A proper spectacle, I loved that.”
— Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp following his club’s
4-3 victory over Leeds in a Premier League opener for both teams. Mohamed Salah recorded a hat trick to help the defending champ extend its home unbeaten streak in the league to 60 matches.