San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
OSAKA RETURNS TO COURT WITH NEW MINDSET, GOALS
Naomi Osaka’s last Grand Slam appearance ended with a loss to an unseeded teen in the U.S. Open’s third round, and she trudged off the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium with her head bowed.
In tears afterward, Osaka confessed that she felt only relief in victory and extreme sadness in defeat — signs, she said, that she needed to take a break.
Four months later, Osaka, 24, is scheduled to return to Grand Slam competition as the two-time and defending champion of the Australian Open, which gets underway today (San Diego time) in Melbourne. The former world No. 1 will open play with a new mindset, she recently explained, and reframed ambition.
“I only really have one major goal this year, and it’s completely unrelated to results and stuff like that,” Osaka said Jan. 4, after her first match in four months, a victory in a hard-court tuneup at Melbourne Park. “For me, I just want to feel like every time I step on the court I’m either — not that I’m either, but I’m having fun. I can walk off the court knowing that even if I lost, I tried as hard as I could.”
Osaka proclaimed herself
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rested and pleased to be back, having put her threeset loss to eventual U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez behind her. But she suffered an abdominal injury two rounds later and withdrew from the tuneup event to give herself a chance to recover for the Australian Open.
It’s a tournament she loves for two reasons, she said: The warmth of the people and the climate heat .
“Whenever I come here, literally every person that I encounter is so friendly and so nice,” Osaka said. As for the sweltering temperatures, Osaka said she loved competing in conditions she likened to “suffering” because she knew that her opponents were suffering, too.
Osaka’s well-being — the state of her game and the state of her passion for the game — is among the more compelling storylines of this year’s Australian Open, at least for those who can avert they eyes from the train wreck over the eligibility of nine-time and defending champion Novak Djokovic to compete as an unvaccinated player.
Djokovic, 34, could have avoided the controversy had he gotten fully vaccinated against COVID, as Australian Open officials required of all players and officials unless they showed proof of a valid medical contraindication.
Djokovic also could have ended what became a political circus by withdrawing — acknowledging, perhaps, the furor over his disputed exemption and prioritizing the tournament over his determination to compete for a 21st major that would give him sole possession of the men’s record for most Grand Slam singles titles.
But Djokovic is the sport’s greatest defender, so it is fitting that he and his lawyers managed to keep the prospect of avoiding deportation in play until the 11th hour.
It is difficult to recall a more contentious run-up to what’s billed as “the Happy Slam,” with Djokovic’s supporters pepper-sprayed in the streets, his parents claiming political persecution and fellow players increasingly resentful of his refusal to follow the rules.
But there is a chance that today’s start of play restores harmony to Melbourne Park.
Though Osaka’s ranking slipped to 14th during her hiatus, she will bring imposing credentials to Rod Laver Arena, having won four hardcourt majors over the past four seasons.
“Any time you can show up at a place where you’ve won a couple times before (Osaka won the 2019 and 2021 Australian Opens), on a surface that’s your numberone surface by miles, she has to be talked about as a contender in this era of women’s tennis,” said 22-time Grand Slam doubles champ Pam Shriver, an ESPN analyst.
So, too, is Australia’s Ash Barty, the top-ranked woman, who, like Osaka, took a hiatus earlier in her career to reclaim the love she’d had for tennis as a child. Barty, a twotime Grand Slam champion, is drawn to face Osaka in the Round of 16.
For Osaka, restoring her joy in tennis began, she explained during a news conference earlier this month, with analyzing herself.
“I’m the type of person that cared a little bit too much about the results and the ranking and stuff like that,” Osaka told reporters at the Melbourne tuneup. “I just need to find a way to enjoy the game again because that’s the reason why I was playing in the first place.”