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Naomi Osaka’s defense of her US Open championship is in tatters and her immediate future on the women’s professional tennis circuit is uncertain after a shocking loss to Leylah Annie Fernandez, a Canadian teenager ranked 74th in the world.
Third seed Osaka, a four-time major champion and the world’s best hard court player by far, lost her temper as she served for the game, collapsed in the ensuing tiebreak and was unable to right the ship in the third in a 5-7, 6-7 (2), 6-4 loss in 2h 4min Friday night.
“I feel like myself recently, like, when I win, I don’t feel happy,” Osaka said afterwards in an emotional session with the media. “I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad. I don’t think this is normal. I didn’t really want to cry, but deep down, I feel like …
At this point, the moderator stepped in to end the press conference before Osaka insisted on completing his response while trying to hold back tears.
“Basically I feel like I’m at this point where I’m trying to figure out what I want to do, and honestly, I don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match,” Osaka continued. . “But I think I’ll take a break from playing for a while.”
Earlier, amid a crackling atmosphere inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium, the typically frigid Osaka had unusually thrown their racquet onto the pitch at two consecutive points while dropping the top five from a break-in. tie in the second set, drawing a few boos for one of the tournament’s most beloved. players since her decisive victory over Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open final.
After leaving the field with a white towel draped over her head between sets without notifying chair umpire Alison Hughes, Osaka was quickly snapped on her serve to open the third, then received a code violation for shooting. a ball in the stands as Fernandez consolidated the break for 2-0. The enthusiastic near-capacity crowd at the world’s largest tennis stadium didn’t turn against Osaka so much as it threw itself behind the 18-year-old underdog, who went through one confident serve game after another.
“In the second set I guess in the very last game I found the solution to the problem of returning his serve,” said Fernandez. “I’m glad I found it. From that point on, I just fought, using the energy of the crowd, handing the ball as much as possible, just being offensive and trying my shots.
Osaka, the defending US Open and Australian Open champion who took part in Friday’s prime-time match with a 16-game winning streak in the majors after skipping Roland Garros and Wimbledon, struggled to dominate the rally in their return matches as Fernandez coaxed him mistakes from his imploding foe and coldly served his way to the finish line and his very first grand slam victory against a opponent ranked in the top 20.
Montreal-born Fernandez, who turns 19 on Monday and is one of only two teenagers left in the women’s draw, has absorbed Osaka’s pace extremely well in the championship rounds and punctuated every big point with kicking shots. animated fists towards its box and calls on the Ash Masses for more noise. The unrecognized teenager, who won her first and only WTA title earlier this year in Monterrey, qualifies for a fourth round match with Angelique Kerber, the two-time major champion who beat her grand slam at Flushing Meadows five years ago. years.
“I wasn’t really focused on Naomi,” Fernandez said. “I was only focused on myself, my game, what I had to do. To have the crowd there supporting me and backing me up after every point is amazing. It gave me the energy to keep fighting, keep working, and keep running for the balls she hit.
“I was just glad I was able to put on a show for everyone who came to watch.”
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