US Open champion Naomi Osaka makes her point on and off the court

After greeting Victoria Azarenka at the net, Naomi Osaka acknowledged the cheers from her box. The 22-year-old then walked onto the Arthur Ashe stadium court and laid down on it. Over the years, she has watched champions do that, fall on their back and look up at the sky.
“I’ve always wanted to see what they saw,” Osaka said. “It was an incredible moment,” she reflected.
For a sizeable section of the tennis world, Osaka, who stopped an inspired Azarenka 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to clinch her second US Open crown on Saturday, is the standard.The sky. The limit.

The Japanese powerhouse showed just why during her near two-hour outing on the court. Down 1-6, 0-2, and broken four times in under 40 minutes, Osaka, who had dropped serve just five times en route to the final, appeared to be hurtling to a disappointing loss. Then she dug in, left fist clenched into a ball which she tapped against her heavily taped leg, perhaps reminding herself of what she’s capable of.
An hour later, it was not just a fightback that Osaka had authored, she scripted some daring lines that saw her charge to victory. Hers was the boldest statement, the tallest tennis tale of the Open. But Azarenka, that most inspiring of mothers with a grunt that screams of guts, was the story players and followers wanted to hear.
The Belarusian, who has lived in the United States since she was a teenager, has waged a draining, three-year custody battle with her former boyfriend Billy McKeague. Once topranked on the WTA Tour and winner of two Australian Opens, she battled adversity — including a spate of injuries, depression, failed relationships — as only she can.
In the last few months, with no clear answers in her personal life (read custody case), she came very close to drawing the curtains on her tennis career. Azarenka hadn’t touched her racquet for five months, until she decided to give the game, that is her passion, one last go.

Osaka told the smiling 31-year-old that the final had been a tough outing. The Japanese star confessed to not enjoying it particularly, and even more, wasn’t looking forward to more major finals against the Belarusian, who has climbed to No. 14 in the new rankings.
Azarenka said: “I gave everything that I could. It didn’t come my way. But I’m very proud of the last three weeks that I’ve been here.”
Osaka took hold of the match after wrangling a tough hold in the third game of the second set. She sent Azarenka on a chase thereafter, neutralizing her range from the back of the court, much like the world No. 27 had done to the Japanese’s serve at the start of the match.
“Like two years ago, I maybe would have folded being down a set and a break,” Osaka explained. “The lessons that I learned with life definitely developed me as a person.”

Osaka’s onslaught started earlier. She used the last few months, when the tennis tours had come to a grinding halt, purposefully. “I never had a chance to slow down,” she confessed. “The quarantine gave me a chance to think a lot about what I want to accomplish, what I want people to remember me by. I came into this tournament, or these two tournaments, with that mindset.”
If her tennis has been driven, point-precise and heavy-striking, she has been equally emphatic off the court. The 22-year-old Beverly Hills resident joined the Black Lives Matter protests earlier in the summer. Before sporting masks bearing the names of police victims for her seven outings at Flushing Meadows, she had indicated that she would sit out of her semifinal of the Western and Southern Open. Osaka had stepped up to the line, and she was going to dictate play.