{"id":133104,"date":"2025-09-04T20:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/133104\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T20:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:54:11","slug":"naomi-osaka-is-on-a-mission-and-climbing-back-tennis-missed-her-andscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/133104\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka is on a mission and climbing back. Tennis missed her. \u2014 Andscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Earlier this week, Naomi Osaka told reporters covering the US Open that she did not like the phrase \u201ccomeback\u201d to frame this phase of her career.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what else to call the journey of a player who, at one point, was regarded as a dominating presence in women\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n

Osaka was ranked No. 1 in 2019 at the age of 23. She then experienced an up-and-down spiral in her professional and personal life that included motherhood, depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say we compromise and say that Osaka, 27, is not coming back but climbing back toward the top.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, before yet another partisan crowd at Arthur Ashe Jr. Stadium, Osaka defeated Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 in a gritty women\u2019s singles quarterfinal match. With the victory, Osaka will make her first US Open semifinal appearance since 2020 when she won her second US Open title and third Grand Slam overall.<\/p>\n

Osaka\u2019s match with Muchov\u00e1 was a snapshot of what her past few years have been like: jumping out quickly to a lead and then being faced with a series of break points. In the recent past, she may have broken, but not during this current run. She was broken in the ninth game of the second set.<\/p>\n

In the recent past, this may have been enough to throw her totally off her game, triggering outbursts and broken rackets. Instead, Osaka roared back and broke Muchov\u00e1. She eventually won a tiebreaker to win the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to ask me if I gained anything after becoming a mom, I think I\u2019m a lot more focused than I used to be,\u201d Osaka said after Wednesday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n

\"NaomiNaomi Osaka in action on Day 11 of the US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sept. 3. <\/p>\n

Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thursday night\u2019s match will be her first semifinal Grand Slam appearance since 2021. That year, Osaka stunned the sports world at the French Open when she withdrew after the first round after announcing that she was stepping away from tennis for mental health reasons.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, United States gymnast Simone Biles \u2014 the world\u2019s most dominant female athlete \u2014 brought attention to mental health issues at the 2021 Olympics when she withdrew from the women\u2019s team gymnastics final after experiencing the twisties (a mental condition that causes a gymnast to become disoriented while airborne). Biles and Osaka\u2019s public discussions about their respective mental health struggles helped spark a conversation about the importance of mental health maintenance not only among elite athletes, but also among the public at large.<\/p>\n

Last year at the Paris Olympics, Biles stormed back with a vengeance and turned in a historic performance, capturing three gold medals. Now, Osaka may be storming back. With two more victories, she can win her first grand slam title in nearly five years.<\/p>\n

Osaka has already rekindled the excitement and enthusiasm that the tennis establishment has sorely missed: her charisma, her Zen-like presence, her sense of fashion, and of course, her winning.<\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka is back to shining on the US Open stageRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Winning is paramount and Osaka\u2019s climb back has been arduous.<\/p>\n

After withdrawing from the French Open in 2021, Osaka skipped Wimbledon. At the US Open that year, she lost in the third round; at the 2022 Australian Open, she lost again in the third round; at the 2022 French Open, she suffered a first-round loss. She skipped Wimbledon, and at the 2022 US Open, she lost in the first round. She missed the 2023 season because of pregnancy.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, she told reporters that her time away opened her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that I love tennis way more than I thought I did, and I learned that I actually really love challenges,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s like a video game. You pick it up and even if you lose a level, you kind of just restart and keep going until you eventually win. It\u2019s a little tough sometimes, but I wouldn\u2019t trade it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, she retired in the third round at the Australian Open, lost in the first round at the French Open, and lost in the third round at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

What I admire about Osaka, however, goes beyond her results. I admire her consciousness and compassion.<\/p>\n

\"\"Naomi Osaka (left) wipes away tears as Serena Williams (right) supports her at the women\u2019s singles final on Sept. 8, 2018 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. <\/p>\n

Tim Clayton\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Three Osaka episodes stand out that make the point about her grace and compassion. The first occurred in 2018 when Osaka, then 20, won her first Grand Slam by defeating Serena Williams, a player she grew up idolizing. The match became an ugly battle between Williams and the umpire, who took points away from Williams on two occasions.<\/p>\n

Osaka was never able to fully savor her victory. At the conclusion of the match, pro-Serena fans booed with such fervor that Osaka felt compelled to apologize before the trophy ceremony, saying: \u201cI know that everyone was cheering for her, and I\u2019m sorry it had to end like this.\u201d She then thanked fans for watching the match.<\/p>\n

Grace and class.<\/p>\n

Williams, showing her own grace and class, consoled a tearful Osaka and demanded that the crowd show her respect and allow her to savor the moment.<\/p>\n

A year later, Osaka made a similar gesture after defeating then-15-year-old Coco Gauff after their third-round match that Osaka easily won. Like a big sister, Osaka comforted a tearful Gauff and insisted that she join her at center court.<\/p>\n

Grace and class.<\/p>\n

The third Osaka moment occurred at the Open in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic when we were all masked up. During the tournament, Osaka wore a series of custom-made black face masks that bore the name of a Black person who had been murdered by law enforcement officers or white vigilantes: Breonna Taylor one day, then Elijah McClain, then Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile and Tamir Rice.<\/p>\n

Grace, class, and consciousness. Osaka is not asleep at the wheel.<\/p>\n

A message for Naomi Osaka: Take all the time you needRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Osaka went on to win her second consecutive US Open championship and illustrated the power of athletes using their platform to give energy to resisting tyranny.<\/p>\n

We need that now, more than ever, though times have changed.<\/p>\n

The person who won her first US Open at age 20 in 2018 is a far different person than the 27-year-old who will play in the US Open semifinals on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Osaka thrashed the third-seeded Gauff, now 21. This time there was no comforting. This was about tennis, about competition. Gauff won the US Open title in 2023, the year Osaka had her daughter, Shai. Osaka is on a mission to reclaim territory. The door to a title seemed to have been open a little wider on Wednesday when No. 2-seed Iga \u015awi\u0105tek was upset in the quarterfinals by Amanda Anisimova.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pulling for Osaka; I\u2019m pulling for the story. I\u2019m pulling for inspiration at a time when there is an all-out, unapologetic war on the very diversity that Osaka represents. Her mother, Tamaki, is Japanese, and her father, Leonard Francois, is Haitian.<\/p>\n

Call it what you\u2019d like \u2014 coming back or climbing back, we have missed Osaka. I\u2019ve missed her. Tennis has missed her.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all just glad she\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

William C. Rhoden is a columnist for Andscape and the author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. He directs the Rhoden Fellows, a training program for aspiring journalists from HBCUs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Earlier this week, Naomi Osaka told reporters covering the US Open that she did not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-133104","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\/133104","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=133104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}