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Australian Open winner Naomi Osaka has set herself the ultimate goal of inspiring girls to play tennis.
“That will sound strange. But hopefully I can play long enough to play against a girl who said I was once her favorite player,” the 23-year-old Japanese said on Saturday after her Melbourne final when asked what is best. that she still wants to achieve.
“I think this is the coolest thing that can happen to me,” Osaka said. With 6: 4.6: 3 in the final against American outsider Jennifer Brady, Osaka won her fourth Grand Slam title.
The former world number one has now triumphed twice at the Australian Open and twice at the US Open. The victories at Wimbledon and the French Open are still missing. One of her role models was American superstar Serena Williams, whom she defeated in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Osaka has been undefeated for over a year, but hasn’t played often in the crown-shortened season. Twice, as a precautionary measure, he resigned due to injury, including in the week leading up to the Australian Open. On the hard court and when it matters, he is currently almost unbeatable.
Tennis is no longer a top priority
In the round of 16 alone, last year’s finalist Garbine Muguruza had two match points unused against Osaka; otherwise the Japanese won every game in straight sets, including in the semi-finals against Williams.
During the quarantine, Osaka took another big step forward, not so much in a playful way, but above all mentally. She recognizes it herself. “I had a tendency to measure my well-being just by my performance in the field,” says the daughter of a Haitian and a Japanese woman from Sapporo. “But seeing what was going on in the world gave me a completely different perspective.” It refers not only to the pandemic, but also to the “Black Lives Matter” protest movement, which draws attention to violence against blacks.
The difference between Osaka in the first Grand Slam title in New York in 2018 and Osaka today is striking. The shy girl, who could barely utter a sound, has grown into a confident 23-year-old woman who is not afraid to speak, but never loses her decency. She is aware that she is currently a serial winner and has a great future. “But I go step by step and I prefer to live in the moment,” he emphasized.
If Osaka can still play well on clay and grass, she will have what it takes to dominate the currently largely under-managed women’s tennis scene for many years, and to become an even more global icon than she has been for a long time. 16 years older than Serena Williams. She improved from 3 to 2 in the world rankings on Monday and would likely be No. 1 if Ashleigh Barty couldn’t keep her results from the year before last in the rankings.
Text as: © LAOLA1.at
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