Naomi Osaka wins US Open after roaring back from a set down to lift her third Grand Slam
NAOMI OSAKA produced an epic US Open final comeback to win a third tennis Slam.
The highest-paid female athlete in the world banked £2.3million as she fought back from a set down to beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6 6-3 6-3.
It was the first time since Arantxa Sanchez Vicari’s success against Steffi Graf 26 years ago that a woman had won in three sets in New York after losing the first.
The triumph follows her major victories at Flushing Meadows two years ago and in Australia in 2019 and underlines her status as the star of this generation.
Japan’s Osaka said: “I didn’t enjoy that, it was a really tough match. I wouldn’t be here without my team or family.
“I always see people collapse after match point but I think you might injure yourself so I went down on the floor safely.
“I thought it would be embarrassing to lose in under an hour and had to stop having a really bad attitude.
“The point of the masks is to make people start talking. I am not sure what is happening outside this bubble.
“All I know is what is happening on social media. The more retweets it gets, the more people talk about it.”
Gutted Azarenka added: “I thought third time was a charm. But I guess I will have to try again. I hope we can meet in some finals again.”
Osaka, 22, arrived on court wearing a mask bearing the name Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black kid shot and killed by a white police officer in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2014, while he played with a toy gun.
It was a commendable way to use her global platform and spark impactful calls for racial equality and societal change.
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Osaka, her left thigh heavily strapped up, could not have envisaged the first set going as horribly wrong as this.
Belarusian Azarenka, 31, raced into a 6-1 lead on 27 minutes and was intending to win in record-breaking time in her first Slam final since becoming a mum.
Yet Osaka had other ideas, asserting herself in the match, nailing her groundstrokes, and managed to take the victory in the deciding third set.
BRITS Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won a fourth straight wheelchair men’s double final as they beat Frenchmen Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer 6-4 6-1.