NEW YORK: After one wrong move in the first set of the U.S. Open final, Naomi Osaka looked at her coach, in the mostly empty Stadium, stands with palms up, as if to say, “What the heck is happening?” Naomi Osaka says quarantine made her a slow down.
Naomi Osaka has won her second U.S. Open championship and third Grand Slam title overall by beating Victoria Azarenka in three sets in the final at Flushing Meadows. Osaka’s 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in New York adds to her trophies from the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open.
The 22-year-old was born in Japan and now is based in the United States. The final was played at a nearly empty and mostly silent Arthur Ashe Stadium, a facility with more than 23,000 seats. Fans were banned from the U.S. Open this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Osaka stepped onto the court wearing a black mask with the name of Tamir Rice, a Black 12-year-old boy killed by police in Ohio in 2014. Osaka arrived in New York with seven masks bearing the names of Black victims of violence and wore a different one for each match, honoring Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Philando Castile.
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