Naomi Osaka was left teary-eyed after registering her first-ever win in the US Open since 2021.
The former US Open champion beat 2017 Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko on her comeback at Flushing Meadows in the opening round of US Open 2024. It was Osaka’s first-ever top-10 win in the last 4 years at this grand slam event in New York.
She is a two-time US Open champion, with the first of her four Grand Slam titles coming in 2018, followed by 2020. She missed last year’s tournament after giving birth to daughter Shai but watching from the crowd, reignited her spirit to compete. Osaka also admitted that she was unsure if she was physically fit to return to the hard court after her maternity leave.
“I was trying not to cry when I walked out. Last year I watched coco play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again. I don’t know if I could. I don’t know if athletically physically if I was able to. Just to win this match and to be in this atmosphere means so much to me. So thank you.”
Osaka’s special win at US Open
Arriving in her green outfit with full of bows, she was dispatching the no. 10 seed Ostapenko with barrage of powerful serves. She fired over 19 winners, including nine aces, and made just five unforced errors.
“My daughter didn’t want to sleep at night”
“It was stressful. She was hitting some really good shots. I told myself keep going for every point and maybe you’ll have an opportunity. Eventually, I did. The. I looked up and saw so many faces. So I was like woah”
Juggling a Grand Slam tournament and motherhood would not be easy, but Osaka has been embracing the challenge after she gave birth in July 2023.
“At night my daughter didn’t wanna go to sleep at her bedtime so I had to hold her for a while. I was like ‘oh wow she picked the perfect day to not go to sleep.’ Moments like that are so precious to me. I can only hope I keep having more.”