{"id":526782,"date":"2026-03-10T12:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526782\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T12:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:33:11","slug":"naomi-osaka-and-aryna-sabalenka-paved-contrasting-paths-to-tennis-stardom-at-indian-wells-they-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526782\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka paved contrasting paths to tennis stardom. At Indian Wells, they cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open<\/a>, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> wore a placid smile to her news conference, serenity personified in a baby-pink top after sailing to a third-round victory over Jaqueline Cristian.<\/p>\n

A reporter asked her about her next match, and what it might be like to face fellow four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka<\/a> again. Sabalenka and Osaka have only squared off once before, in the fourth round of the 2018 U.S. Open that Osaka would go on to win.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s smile widened. Her eyes floated up and to the left.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d she said, \u201cIt will sure be a fashion show<\/a> at the beginning. Then a crazy match.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no shade in Sabalenka\u2019s comment about her fellow fashion lover, only truth. The prospect of finally watching another match between two of the most captivating players of the past decade is thrilling \u2014 but only partly because of the tennis.<\/p>\n

The match is rife with subplots. In a sport constantly thirsting for substantial rivalries, here, in the desert, floats a pairing as tantalizing and unreal as a mirage. It cuts across fashion, sports business and cultural resonance, a showcase of two players who have taken their own paths toward stardom and met their own obstacles along the way.<\/p>\n

As a spectacle, Sabalenka vs. Osaka is as thought-provoking for what it says about tennis fans\u2019 values as it is competitively enticing.<\/p>\n

On paper, the bout looks lopsided. Sabalenka is operating at her full power, having followed her 2025 U.S. Open title with a run to the final of the Australian Open this January. She is world No. 1.<\/p>\n

Osaka, ranked No. 16, will always be regarded as a serious threat, thanks to her ball-striking and championship resum\u00e9. But she came through an uneven third-round match against No. 61 Camila Osorio on Sunday in three sets, and since her most recent return to tennis in 2024, she has a 2-8 record against top-10 players.<\/p>\n

Both are spoiling for the fight. For Osaka, playing Sabalenka is exactly the big match she lives for.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, they\u2019re the most fun,\u201d she said Sunday during an interview with Tennis Channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was younger, I used to only show up for big matches like this. This is what I practice for. I\u2019m just really excited to see what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sabalenka, there is deferred revenge at stake, after Osaka\u2019s dramatic three-set victory nearly eight years ago that sent her to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. The match was a preview of fireworks to come for both players, taut with suspense and stuffed with winners.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka held serve from 0-40 twice in the final set, and then saved three match points in the final game, before ultimately double-faulting on match point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to play her,\u201d Sabalenka said of their coming rematch, with a Cheshire-cat grin.<\/p>\n

\"Naomi<\/p>\n

\n Naomi Osaka beat Aryna Sabalenka in their only previous competitive meeting, at the 2018 U.S. Open. (Tim Clayton \/ Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The win proved a breakthrough moment in Osaka\u2019s career, putting the then-20-year-old on track to win her first Grand Slam. Sabalenka wouldn\u2019t win her first major title until 2023; by then, Osaka had won her fourth.<\/p>\n

Since then, their fortunes on the court have reversed, with Sabalenka winning three titles to Osaka\u2019s zero, but the most compelling narrative around Tuesday\u2019s match will be its meaning for tennis\u2019 attention economy.<\/p>\n

Osaka, who has remained one of the biggest sports stars in the world even when away from the court, has built her cultural resonance by walking a well-trod path \u2014 one available to only the most elite tier of transcendent athletes.<\/p>\n

She established a foundation of partnerships with massive brands, and then broke away from her agency, IMG, to take more creative control. In 2022, she started her own agency, Evolve, with her agent Stuart Duguid. They also founded a production company.<\/p>\n

The agency was initially presented as if Osaka had equity as a co-founder, but this was not the case, she said, during an interview with Bounces<\/a> after she departed Evolve last December to return to IMG. Duguid declined to comment on the split.<\/p>\n

The most recent example of Osaka\u2019s cultural world-building in the second act of her career is her tennis fashion. Reaction to her jellyfish-inspired walk-on outfit at the Australian Open<\/a>, which she designed with Robert Wun, a London-based couturier from Hong Kong, dominated the tournament\u2019s news cycle for days.<\/p>\n

At the BNP Paribas Open, she debuted a Nike leopard-print dress with gold ear cuffs, facial jewelry and clawed gloves, designed with Filipino-American designer Chris Habana.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka, who has taken a more grassroots approach to relevance in her climb up the rankings with TikTok dances and courtside bits with her coaches, expressed a half-joking displeasure with her lack of custom kits from Nike at last year\u2019s WTA Tour Finals.<\/p>\n

But while Nike designed Osaka\u2019s dress for this tournament, and at the Australian Open, the Wun outfit was an Osaka production, fully funded by her, as reported by Hard Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most fun things I can do,\u201d Osaka said in a news conference of designing her kits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way to express yourself, it\u2019s a story that I want to convey.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2025, Sabalenka took a similar step to Osaka in search of autonomy, leaving IMG to join Evolve in part, she said, because IMG wasn\u2019t meeting her expectations.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian was frustrated at the disparity between her on-court success \u2014 by then she\u2019d won three Grand Slam trophies \u2014 and a sponsorship portfolio<\/a> that lacked the type of opulent brands top tennis players often attract.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson for IMG described their split as mutual.<\/p>\n

A year later, Sabalenka has spent more time in the spotlight thanks to a much publicized, and criticized, \u201cBattle of the Sexes<\/a>\u201d stunt with fellow Evolve client Nick Kyrgios. On the luxury brand front, Gucci and Emirates Airlines announced her as a brand ambassador in January.<\/p>\n

Osaka and Sabalenka serve as reminders that stardom in sports isn\u2019t always about who wins the most; celebrity is a fickle formula. Osaka, the pioneering introvert, is an icon. Sabalenka, the world-beating extrovert, always seems to be striving. The apparent paradox has nothing to do with their brilliant tennis; it has everything to do with those of us watching the show.<\/p>\n

And with Sabalenka\u2019s and Osaka\u2019s resum\u00e9s, instincts, playing styles and forces of will, it\u2019s irresistible to imagine what might have been had they battled each other more often. Or even more than once. Come Tuesday, tennis fans will imagine no longer.<\/p>\n

Osaka well remembers what the match could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do remember it just because I felt like in that tournament, that was the hardest match for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I remember thinking, like, we\u2019re both going to get very far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open, Aryna Sabalenka wore a placid smile to her news conference, serenity personified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,569,82,575,593],"class_list":["post-526782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-culture","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}