Osaka changes her ’tude
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. 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 victory for her second U.S. Open championship and third Grand Slam title overall.
“For me, I just thought,” said Osaka, who trailed by a set and a break, “it would be very embarrassing to lose this in under an hour.”
This, then, is what she told herself with a white towel draped over her head at a changeover 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.
Osaka, 22, arrived for the match wearing a mask with the name of Tamir Rice, a Black 12-year-old boy killed by police in Ohio in 2014. Calling attention to racial injustice, Osaka honored other Black victims of violence throughout the U.S. Open with masks honoring Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Philando Castile.
“The point,” Osaka explained, “is to make people start talking.”
Osaka and her coach, Wim Fissette — who used to work with Azarenka — have said they believe the off-court activism has helped her energy and mindset in matches.