Top-ranked Iga Swiatek fought through a tough first-round match at the US Open on Tuesday, and two-time champion Naomi Osaka made an impressive return to the tournament by beating No. 10 Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2 in a rare first-round clash between former major winners.
Osaka, the 2018 and 2020 champion in Flushing Meadows, needed only 64 minutes to oust Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion.
It was the kind of performance that was standard from Osaka when she reached No. 1 in the rankings and won four Grand Slam titles from 2018 to 2021.
But she had missed large gaps of time since, first for mental health breaks then after giving birth, and just this month posted on social media about the struggles of not playing as well as she used to after failing to qualify for the tournament in Cincinnati.
Osaka smashed 19 winners against only five unforced errors Tuesday and said the adoring New York crowd fueled her from the moment she stepped out on the court.
“I was trying not to cry when I was walking out,” Osaka said. “I remember last year I was watching Coco [Gauff] play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again and I didn’t know if I could.”
Her emotional return was nearly derailed by an uncooperative 1-year-old.
“Last night, my daughter didn’t want to go to sleep on her bedtime so I had to hold her for quite a while,” Osaka said. “I was like, ‘Oh wow, she really picked the perfect day not to go to sleep.'”
Osaka’s win Tuesday was her first over a WTA top-10 player in more than four years, since she defeated No. 9 Kiki Bertens in the quarterfinals at Brisbane in 2020.
She wore a Kobe Bryant jersey to her postmatch news conference and recalled the time the Los Angeles Lakers legend came to watch her play at Louis Armstrong Stadium here five years ago.
“I honestly remember being a little bit in disbelief that he was coming specifically to watch my match,” she said. “Just to feel that support was unreal. I think for me I always wear Kobe jerseys after matches and practices because I feel like a little bit, like, I can kind of keep his spirit with me.”
For Tuesday’s match, Osaka was decked out — from her visor and dress to the bows on her back and attached to her shoes — in lime green.
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