{"id":126874,"date":"2025-09-02T09:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/126874\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T09:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:25:11","slug":"naomi-osaka-is-back-to-shining-on-the-us-open-stage-andscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/126874\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka is back to shining on the US Open stage \u2014 Andscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 There have been times recently in Naomi Osaka\u2019s career where she appeared unhappy. But even in those moments \u2014 the fall in the rankings, the depression, the struggles in her return from having a baby \u2014 she never thought about walking away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing this sport since I was three,\u201d Osaka said Sunday. \u201cI tell people it\u2019s like breathing air to me. I wouldn\u2019t really know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osaka proved Monday why she\u2019s chosen to hang around and overcome the adversity she\u2019s faced in recent years as she overpowered the tournament\u2019s No. 3 seed, Coco Gauff, in an easy 6-3, 6-2 win in their highly anticipated rematch from the 2019 US Open.<\/p>\n

With the upset win Osaka, the No. 23 seed, faces No. 11 seed Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 in a quarterfinal match on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

For Osaka, just call the win her \u201callow me to reintroduce myself\u201d moment to a venue where she\u2019s won two of her four majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really speak too much on the second week of a major, because this is my first time back here,\u201d Osaka said of reaching the second week of the US Open for the first time since winning her second title here in 2020. \u201cI feel really relaxed. I don\u2019t feel stressed at all. For me, whatever happens the rest of this tournament\u2026 I\u2019m just trying to be a better tennis player and learn from every match that I play.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Osaka clearly learned from her match Monday is that she can once again shine in a big setting against the top players in the world \u2014 and have fun doing it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Naomi Osaka returns a shot against Coco Gauff during their US Open fourth-round match at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 1 in New York City.<\/p>\n

Sarah Stier\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As Osaka prepared to serve late in the second set and a fan yelled \u201cc\u2019mon, Coco,\u201d she was unfazed by the rude disruption, breaking a smile as she glanced into the upper reaches of Arthur Ashe Stadium where the scream originated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I want to take away from this tournament is just smiling and having fun,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cGoing into this match, I just wanted to be grateful. She\u2019s one of the best players in the world. For me, honestly, I have the most fun when I play against the best players.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of that 2019 US Open match against Gauff, Osaka was the top-ranked player in the world and appeared capable of assuming the dominant player throne that Serena Williams had long occupied. What followed, however, was a stretch of mental illness that led her to walk away from the 2021 French Open after a first-round win, followed by opting out of Wimbledon later that summer. <\/p>\n

Osaka returned to tennis in 2022 but announced days before the 2023 Australian Open that she was pregnant, which led to a one-year hiatus. <\/p>\n

At US Open, Naomi Osaka makes a statement on and off the courtRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

While her return to tennis was rough (and well-documented in the documentary, \u201cNaomi Osaka: The Second Set\u201d that was released last month), Osaka showed signs of getting back to form at the beginning of this year when she reached the finals of the Auckland Open \u2014 her first final since 2022.<\/p>\n

Osaka credits reaching the final of the National Bank Open in Montreal in August as a turning point in her confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a match in Montreal where I had to save two match points,\u201d Osaka said after Monday\u2019s win over Gauff. \u201cEver since then I started thinking anything is possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

While Osaka appears to be in the midst of a career revival, Gauff \u2014 despite being just 21 years old \u2014 seems to be in the midst of a career crisis. She won her second career major in the 2025 French Open, but followed that with first-round losses in consecutive tournaments.<\/p>\n

Gauff fired her coach just days before the US Open, a shocker coming from the No. 3 player in the world. She looked far from dominant in advancing to the fourth round, and the unsteadiness in her game showed against Osaka as she had 33 unforced errors, 20 of those coming on her forehand.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the ground I think I just made way too many mistakes, way too many errors, which I feel like that\u2019s the part of my game that I felt the most confident in coming into the tournament,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cFor sure it was not the level that I wanted to bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Gauff? She has a commitment to play in the China Open later this month in Beijing. After that she\u2019ll return to the lab to work with her new coach, Gavin MacMillan, who introduced a new service motion to her game prior to the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just improvement mode to get ready for Australia,\u201d Gauff said of the Australian Open in January, the first major of the calendar year. \u201cWhatever happens for the rest of the year, I just want it to be improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Naomi Osaka (left) and Coco Gauff (right) embrace following their fourth-round match of the 2025 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 1 in New York City.<\/p>\n

Sarah Stier\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As Gauff was on her way to winning the US Open in 2023, television cameras caught Osaka \u2014 who had given birth several months earlier \u2014 was in the crowd.<\/p>\n

Osaka was asked if, on that night, she could have imagined beating the 2023 champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019m crazy or something, but I always feel like you have to imagine it, and then you have to believe it for it to actually come true,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cBut you\u2019re also speaking to the kid that, like, visualized playing Serena [Williams] too. So I feel like there\u2019s a lot of power in dreaming and believing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most exciting aspect for Osaka, who has needed wild card entries to get into tournaments this past year?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t need a wild card to enter tournaments anymore,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cI think I\u2019ll be seeded in, like, the Indian Wells, Miami type of tournaments, so that\u2019s what I\u2019m happy about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Bembry is a senior writer at Andscape. His bucket list items include being serenaded by Lizz Wright and watching the Knicks play a MEANINGFUL NBA game in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 There have been times recently in Naomi Osaka\u2019s career where she appeared unhappy. But even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-126874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}