Naomi Osaka is Queen of the Court
Naomi Osaka cemented herself as the best big-match player in women’s tennis with her win on Saturday night inside Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
In defeating Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 and winning the 2021 Australian Open, she has now won all four of her Grand Slam Finals appearances. Once she makes it to the business end of a major, she’s combined to go an undefeated 12-0 in quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. Only Roger Federer and Monica Seles have started out their major careers with such gusto – Federer winning his first seven finals and Seles taking her first six. Dispatching Serena Williams, the greatest tennis player of her generation, on the way to two of her major triumphs is certainly a feather in the cap for Osaka, who, along with many other young players, reveres Williams. But at some point with all great athletes, the torch must be passed. With Osaka’s performance these past two weeks, that has officially taken place.
Osaka’s first three matches were routine, as she only lost 13 games on the way to straight sets victories. A clash with two-time major winner and 2020 Australian Open finalist, Garbine Muguruza, in the 4th round certainly had popcorn tennis written all over it. The two power players did not disappoint. Having never player before, Muguruza used a run of 8 games in 10 to go up a set and a break in the 2nd set. With some frustration setting in, Osaka reached back into her bag of tricks and let out a little emotion, which allowed her to play more “instinct-based tennis” to level the match and take it to a deciding set. Down 3-5 in the final set, she staved off two match points and then played clean tennis, winning the last four games on the trot to close out the comeback 4-6, 6-4. 7-5. It was eerily reminiscent of two great escapes made by Serena in majors past: her 2009 semifinal win (and match of the year) at Wimbledon against Elena Dementiava – 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6, saving a match point at 4-5 in the final set, as well as her 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the 2003 Australian Open – saving match points down 2-5 in the 3rd and reeling off the last six games of the match.
Her straight sets victories against tricky veteran Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals showed how prepared she was for the match. Being ready for Su-Wei’s different brand of tennis can be difficult, as she was able to slice and dice her way through the first four rounds of the tournament but couldn’t find her way past Osaka. Her passing-of-the-torch victory over the aforementioned Serena Williams in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-4 cemented her as the favourite in the final regardless of her opponent. And in the finals, while she didn’t play her best match of the tournament, she did everything just slightly better than Brady. Neither served particularly well (48% 1st serves for both), but Osaka backed up both her 1st serve (73%) and 2nd serve (55%) better than Brady. Although she only hit one more winner than Brady, she was much cleaner with seven less errors than her opponent. In the end, it amounted to a total point score of 69-54 for a clean decision and her 2nd Australian Open title. This is now the 2nd time that Osaka has followed up a US Open title with a title down under.
If Osaka can keep it up and win a few more majors quickly, it will start to eat into the rest of the players on tour. It already feels as though Osaka is unbeatable when it gets to the 2nd week of a slam. She seems to be able to come up with “it” when it matters most in the clutch. It could be a big first serve. A stinging return. The ability to stay in a point defensively and somehow turn it into offense. At 5’11” she has the physical stature to bang away with the biggest hitters on tour, but also the ability to grind out points versus more crafty opponents. Her serve is starting to take on Serena-like power and precision. She rarely gets rattled (despite the “outburst” versus Muguruza), and never seems to be out of a match when the stakes are highest.
Now this doesn’t mean that other players don’t have a claim to challenge Osaka. Iga Swiatek burst onto the scene at last year’s October French Open but hasn’t made it past the 4th round of any of her other 11 majors. Simona Halep is now a veteran of 5 major finals but has only taken 2 titles home with her and has a lot of scar tissue with extremely tough defeats late in majors. Other major winners like Ash Barty, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka may be able to challenge Osaka, but her biggest threat should come from Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who proved to be a big-match player after her 3 big titles in 2019 (Indian Wells, Canada & US Open – getting through Serena herself in the finals). However, Andreescu simply hasn’t been around long enough to support the claim as she has suffered through injury during her breakout 2019 campaign, as well as since as she has missed 15+ months of action. Osaka and Andreescu have only played once but tennis fans hope that they can bring a rivalry of heavy top-spin, clutch serving and big-match play to the WTA for years to come.
Besides her terrific on-court play, another part of the Naomi Osaka brand is her personality and activism. Notoriously shy and introverted, Osaka has started to grow in her own skin. The Japanese star is the daughter of a Haitian Father and Japanese Mother and was raised in New York City. She has used her prominence as a bi-racial athlete to speak out on racial injustice – famously pulling out of the Cincinnati Open last year and raising awareness at the US Open with individually named masks for victims of police brutality. In both 2019 and 2020, she has been named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World – quite an honour for the then-22 year old. She is only behind Serena in off-court earnings for female athletes, posting earnings of $16M in 2019 . (Side note: in a show of dominance for the sport of tennis and the marketability of the WTA, the entire top 10 was comprised of tennis players, as well as 12 of the top 15) Companies such as Nike, Nissan, Tag Heuer and Louis Vuitton, amongst others, all pay Osaka to be brand ambassadors. She’s putting together a well-crafted image off the court that align with her values and in doing so, is coming across as a genuine, authentic role model for young girls around the world.
Not only can Osaka produce big victories around the world on tennis courts, but she also has the willingness and a new-found voice to make lasting change off the court, too. She is the leading representative in a bright future on the WTA post-Serena as the most likely candidate to succeed as the next “best of generation” player. The women’s game, and tennis in general, is in good hands with Naomi Osaka at the helm.
Andrew Palm contributes to The Slice from Toronto, ON, Canada
photo copyright: Sports Illustrated
