Osaka rallies for 3rd Slam title

NEW YORK — 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 in the early going Saturday, 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 this would be very embarrassing, to lose this in less than an hour,” said Osaka, who dropped down to lay on the court after winning.

A quarter-century had passed since the last time the 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 actually 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 United States, added to her trophies from the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open.