Naomi Osaka arrived at last year’s US Open a dangerous floater buoyed by a season of promise and left it as one of the world’s most visible sportspeople after winning her maiden grand slam title in one of the most controversial finals in the tournament’s centuries-spanning history.
One year on, the world No 1 returns to the scene of her signature triumph beset by injury and weighed down by an entirely new set of expectations, but no less empowered by the quiet confidence that has lifted her to the summit of women’s tennis.
The 21-year-old enters among the shortlist of betting favourites as the defending champion and top seed in the women’s draw at the tournament, which kicks off here on Monday morning.
But since backing up last year’s breakthrough run at Flushing Meadows compellingly with an Australian Open title in January that lifted her to the top of the WTA rankings, Osaka has weathered an extended rocky patch including early exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, followed by a knee injury that cut short a crucial runway event in the Cincinnati quarter-finals.
“It’s definitely changed for me,” Osaka said on Friday of her whirlwind 50-week journey since last year’s US Open. “I took a break and relaxed my mind and realised that you have to have fun doing what you love. I love tennis. Sometimes I feel like I don’t, but I wake up every morning and if I don’t play, I feel like I kind of have done nothing during the day. I just go out now every day trying to learn something new, trying to just do the best that I can.”
The cool-tempered star held court on a rainy afternoon at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center when it was confirmed that Carlos Ramos, the umpire whose conflict with Serena Williams during last year’s women’s final came to overshadow Osaka’s milestone victory, will not take charge of any matches involving the Williams sisters over the next fortnight.
So often has Osaka been prodded for her impressions from that regrettable episode that she politely declined to address further questions about it, rather insisting her experience as a reigning champion at Indian Wells this year offered valuable preparation for the media crucible New York always presents.
“I think going to Indian Wells and learning how defending champion pressure feels, I think it definitely helped me out going into this tournament,” she said. “Because I just feel more loose and comfortable here. I’m not sure if it’s because the last couple of months have been turbulent, but I feel really comfortable and I know that, despite everything, I play well here every year. I’m not too worried about that.”
She added: “I feel like I have a familiarity [with New York]. That’s not because I won last year. It’s because I have been kind of hitting on these courts since I was a kid. I used to train here. So that would be where that familiarity feeling comes from. My feeling last year was I lost three matches in a row before I came here, so I just wanted to get one match. Then it just kept building on from that. As opposed to this year, I went to two quarter-finals back to back, and I feel very confident about how I am right now.”
The cerebral Osaka, who ceded the No 1 ranking to Australia’s Ashleigh Barty for seven weeks this summer before regaining it this month, took a typically philosophical tack when asked to reflect on a sometimes challenging year at the top of the sport – where the pressures of global stardom and a rapidly expanding sponsorship portfolio can often trump the benefits.
“It has its moments,” she said. “There are some times I definitely think to myself I’m really blessed to be in this position, and then there is bad things that come with that.
“I would never say anything negative about what’s going on in my life right now, because for me, that’s my life. That’s what I kind of have to deal with every day. I don’t know. For me, when you say is it a dream, it’s like something fluffy, like you’re on the beach somewhere sipping a pina colada. I’m right here right now.”
