STAR from the EAST

Awesome Osaka shines in epic final and now she is on top of the world

THE journey from nowhere to world No1 has been short and very sweet for Naomi Osaka, the new superstar that women’s tennis has long been searching for.

Having been ranked 70 a year ago, the Japanese player finds herself a double Grand Slam champion and squinting into the glare of global recognition after playing another brilliant final that tested her on every level.

It took two gigantic bites for her to beat Petra Kvitova 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 in the Australian Open women’s final here. This was quite some follow-up on a US Open triumph that got somewhat overlooked due to the behaviour of her opponent that night in New York.

The match could have been over an hour before it was actually completed after she failed to nail three match points at 5-3 in the second set.

What she displayed, ultimately, was the kind of composure that is uncoachable and which true champions have within themselves, as seen against Serena Williams in New York.

The wider impact on tennis of the 21-year-old’s success will be profound, especially coming in the wake of China’s Li Na, who made it to world No2 and was on hand to present the trophy.

Asia has its first No 1 of either sex, and while Osaka the tennis player was made in America, this will further embed her stardom in the land of her birth, and where her maternal grandparents still live.

Osaka had taken herself off court following the second set and admitted there were a few tears at the time. ‘I told myself not to be immature,’ she said later.

It was, naturally, a far warmer atmosphere than at Flushing Meadows.

She added: ‘In New York, most of the crowd was for Serena. Here, they were split a little bit. I didn’t want to have any regrets. I could have looked back on this and cried.

‘I don’t think it was drama, the match points were on Petra’s serve. I just played a third set — if you call that drama.’

The well-documented journey to this final of her opponent could hardly have been more different, and in some ways this match was meant to conclude a supreme tale of redemption.

Barely two years after that horrendous knife attack in her apartment, which saw her racket wielding hand badly slashed, it was something of a miracle that she made it this far at all. Kvitova almost pulled it off, and also had enough chances to have won this final in straight sets had Osaka (right) been less resolute. The Czech became emotional on court when thanking her team ‘for sticking with me when we didn’t know if I would be able to hold a racket again’.

‘It’s still painful. I don’t know how long it will take me to get over it,’ said the 28-year-old, who now becomes world No2.

‘I did have my chances in the first set when I had 40-love on her serve. But I think I already won two years ago. For me, that’s amazing.’

From the off, they traded winners and the games rattled by with momentum shifts aplenty.

Kvitova missed three break points at 3-3. She was outplayed in the tiebreak and went down 7-2.

Osaka wobbled badly when she failed to capitalise on her three match points, and it took her until the second game of the decider to pull herself together, at a time when Kvitova threatened to sprint away.

However, when it came to the second time of asking, at 5-4, Osaka looked as nerve-free as when she had beaten Williams at Flushing Meadows, serving the match out.