Four-time tennis Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka began her comeback campaign Tuesday with a straight-sets win over 10th-ranked Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of the U.S. Open.
Wearing a green ruffled skirt with a white bow tied around her waist — a custom look by Nike — Osaka made a statement well beyond her fashion: She wasn’t giving up so easily after a season riddled with challenges.
In front of a packed crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York City, Osaka exuded positivity, with a spring in her step as she took down her Latvian opponent — a fellow Grand Slam champion who had 11 more match wins than Osaka this year.
Osaka fought back tears as she spoke after the match, greeted by the audience’s standing ovation.
“I so badly wanted to step on these courts again,” she said. “I didn’t know if I could. … Just to win this match, just to be in this atmosphere, means so much to me.”
Osaka had earned a wild card spot in the women’s singles main draw after not having ranked high enough to qualify directly. She entered the tournament with an 18-15 record, and she was ranked 88th in the world.
After most recently having lost in the qualifying rounds of the Cincinnati Open, Osaka opened up on Instagram about the mental struggles she faced since she gave birth to her first child.
“I don’t feel like I’m in my body,” Osaka wrote. She signed off her message with a promise to give it her best shot as she headed for New York.
So far, her hard work seems to have paid off.
Osaka has won the U.S. Open twice, including in a controversial match against Serena Williams in 2018. In her last appearance in 2022, she lost to American Danielle Collins in the first round.
Osaka told the crowd that she had to hold her daughter for a while the night before after she couldn’t fall asleep. Despite the inconvenient timing, Osaka said, the moment was special.
“Moments like that are really precious to me, and I can only hope to keep having more,” she said.
The first round of the U.S. Open also saw hype around 16-year-old Iva Jokic, who pulled off a stunning upset as the youngest American to win a women’s main-draw match at the U.S. Open since 2000.
Osaka will next face Karolína Muchová in the second round Thursday.
