She is back in sports news after having occupied the place on more social questions. The Japanese Naomi Osaka, driven by her commitment to Black Lives Matter, won, in New York on Saturday, September 12, the US Open, her third Grand Slam title, by returning a poorly started final against the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka ( 27e) 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
At 22, Osaka, already a winner at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and at the Australian Open in 2019, will meet again on Monday 3e rank in the WTA rankings, while it was at 9e place at the start of the competition.
“I don’t want to play more finals against you, it was too hard”Osaka said to his opponent upon receiving his trophy. Led 6-1, 2-0 without having existed, the former world number 1 suddenly found his game and in particular his service. And little by little, it was she who got her hands on the match. “I thought it would be quite embarrassing to lose in less than an hour, so I had to really fight and stop having this bad behavior”, she analyzed.
The game then became one-sided, but in Osaka’s favor this time, up to 4-2 for the Japanese in the last set. At this moment, Azarenka had a start by resuming the face-off of his opponent to return to 4-3. But Osaka immediately regained the advantage and concluded in stride.
Masks bearing the names of victims of police violence
She thus ends a tournament during which she has shown great maturity and revealed part of her character, until then often hidden behind a wall of shyness.
It was during the Cincinnati tournament, played in the Flushing Meadows bubble, that Naomi Osaka opened up as an activist, and not just as a tennis player. She had decided not to play her semi-final to protest the police shootings on African-American Jacob Blake, prompting the organizers’ decision to cancel an entire day of the tournament and postpone the event by twenty-four hours. end of the competition. Osaka then agreed to play. Until his thigh prevented him from defending his chances in the final.
At the US Open, she had prepared seven black masks – one per game until the final – each bearing the name of a victim of police violence. Naomi Osaka, born to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, has lived in the United States since the age of 3.
“The goal was to get people talking about these problems. I was in the bubble, so I didn’t really know what was going on outside. All I saw was what was being said on social networks and I retweeted to get people talking ”, she commented on Saturday after her victory.
” Never two without three “
For her part, Victoria Azarenka, who beat Serena Williams in the semifinals, was disappointed with her loss, but happy with her return to such a high level. She will find the 14e world rank Monday.
“Never two without three, as they say. I’ll have to try again … “, commented the Belarusian, also former world number 1, in reference to her two finals lost at the US Open in 2012 and 2013. She therefore remains with two major titles on the clock: the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013.
At 31, however, she returns to the highest level after giving birth in 2016 and postponed her return until mid-season 2018 due to a legal battle for custody of her son.
With Cincinnati, she has chained eleven victories in three weeks while she had none since the beginning of the year. And she displayed a great joie de vivre in Flushing Meadows, despite the sanitary conditions, and in particular the closed door, which plunged the tournament into a very strange atmosphere.
“We’re going to have more fun in the coming weeks. It was a long road to get there, but it was fun ”, Azarenka promised to his French trainer Dorian Descloix.
