New York — Naomi Osaka on Monday recorded her first win over a top 10 player in more than four years as she secured an emphatic 6-3 6-2 victory over Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of the US Open.
Osaka’s performance was as eye-catching as the giant green bow she wore as part of her outfit when walking out onto the court, dispatching No. 10 seed Ostapenko with a barrage of powerful serves.
Now ranked No. 88 in the world, Osaka played some of her best tennis since returning from maternity leave at the start of the season. The two-time US Open champion fired over 19 winners, including nine aces, and made just five unforced errors.
Osaka admitted she was “trying not to cry” as she walked out into Louis Armstrong, recalling what it had been like when she wasn’t able to play.
“I remember last year I was watching Coco (Gauff) play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again and I didn’t know if I could,” she said in her on-court interview.
“I didn’t know athletically, physically if I was able to and just to win this match and just to be in this atmosphere means so much to me.”
Osaka’s return to tennis has been peppered with high points in 2024: a victory in her first match back; a first Wimbledon win since 2018; and a quarterfinal appearance at a WTA 1000 event.
However, the four-time grand slam champion has spoken this season about the struggles she has faced returning to tennis after giving birth.
In an Instagram post earlier this month, Osaka explained that she doesn’t “feel like I’m in my body” and that she is “missing balls I shouldn’t miss, hitting balls softer than I remember I used to.”
Osaka revealed what she will now be telling herself as she prepares for her second round match against 2023 semifinalist Karolína Muchová.
“I think just keep focusing, keep trying to play really well, but overall have a lot of fun,” she said.
“Actually, last night my daughter didn’t want to go to sleep on her bedtime, so I had to hold her for quite a while and I was like, ‘Oh wow, she really picked the perfect day not to go to sleep!’”
“But moments like that are so precious to me and I just can only hope that I can keep having more.”
Osaka later spoke about her bright outfit, which also included little green bows on the back on her sneakers, and said she was embracing being more “flamboyant” in New York compared other grand slams.
“I feel like being able to be a part of my tennis outfits gives me, I would say, a different strength,” Osaka explained. “Especially the US Open outfits, I feel like they are a little bit more flamboyant. When I was putting on my outfit today, I was, like: ‘Ah, I hope this isn’t too much!’
“Because I had the tutu and then I had the bow jacket and it was green, I feel like everyone was staring at me funny. And then I put the headphones on, that was a real killer.
“I was like, you know what, embrace this maximalist style.”
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