San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Osaka rallies to defeat Azarenka for 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 offkilter 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 16, 63, 63 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 an 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. So much of this was about Osaka’s transformation from shaky to surefooted. She had just five winners in the first set, 16 in the second. And talk about cleaning up her act: She went from 13 unforced errors to merely five.
A quartercentury 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, a 22yearold born in Japan and now based in the United States, arrived for Saturday’s match wearing a mask with the name of Tamir Rice, a Black 12yearold 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.”
Last month, Osaka refused to compete after the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in Wisconsin — she said she would withdraw from her semifinal at the Western & Southern Open, although she decided to play after the tournament took a full day off in solidarity.
Osaka and her coach, Wim Fissette (who used to work with Azarenka) have said they think the offcourt activism — which included attending a rally in Minneapolis and speaking out on social networks and elsewhere — has helped her energy and mindset in matches.
So perhaps it was no coincidence that this win over Azarenka, a 31yearold from Belarus also seeking a third Grand Slam title but first in 7½ years, made Osaka 110 since tennis resumed after its hiatus because of the COVID19 outbreak.
Osaka added to her trophies from the 2018 U.S. Open — earned with a brilliant performance in a memorably chaotic and controversial final against Serena Williams — and 2019 Australian Open.
Azarenka carried an 11match winning streak into Saturday, including a stirring threeset victory over Williams in the semifinals Thursday, stopping the American’s bid for a 24th Grand Slam singles title. Azarenka won the 2012 and 2013 Australian Opens and lost to Williams in the U.S. Open finals each of those years.
“I thought the third time was the charm,” Azarenka said, “but I guess I’ll have to try again.”