Osaka, Naomi (1997- )

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      The Teenagers Are Taking Over Tennis. That Might Not End Well.

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      The U.S. Open play of Leylah Fernandez, Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu has been exhilarating. But if the past is prelude, rough seas are ahead.It has been quite a run for the teenagers at the U.S. Open, especially a bright-eyed and beguiling troika that has managed to turn the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center into its personal playground.Like young stockbrokers who have yet to see a bear market, Emma Raducanu, Leylah Fernandez and Carlos Alcaraz are experiencing the best of tennis life: match after match of effusive crowds that chant their names and ask for selfies, passing shots that nick the back of the line, and the freedom of swinging their rackets on a stage where they cannot lose, because no one was counting on them to win in the first place.And yet, they do not have to look far to see how quickly it can all go off the rails.“Buckle up, it’s a long ride,” Shelby Rogers, the veteran American and Raducanu’s latest casualty, said Sunday when asked what advice she could offer the trio of teenagers for when their U.S. Open runs end.Naomi Osaka had just emerged from her teens three years ago when she upset Serena Williams to win this tournament. Three years, three Grand Slam titles, nearly $20 million in prize money and tens of millions more in sponsorships later, Osaka’s tournament ended this time with a loss to Fernandez followed by a tearful announcement that she will take an indefinite leave from tennis. Iga Swiatek, the Polish star who won the 2020 French Open at 19 without losing a set, spent much of her upset loss Monday against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland screaming at her coach and the sports psychologist who travels with her.By now it is accepted wisdom that tennis has a tendency to eat its young like few other sports. Managing life as a young star on the tennis tour is a physical and mental test that trips up nearly every player at some point, especially those who break through early and then are suddenly expected to compete at the highest level nearly every time they take the court.Emma Raducanu siged autographs and took selfies after defeating Sara Sorribes Tormo over the weekend.Elsa/Getty ImagesA ranking and seeding system places a number next to their name, letting them and the world know in the starkest way who should win any given match. Guaranteed payments from sponsors can relieve the burden of playing for your next meal or plane ticket. However, those contracts are often laden with incentive bonuses for winning tournaments and climbing the rankings. There is an implicit understanding that the contract will, at best, be reduced and at worst not be renewed if players don’t maintain a certain level of proficiency.The attention, from millions of fans but also from family, cuts both ways, sports psychologists say, especially in a sport that has so many parent coaches. Fernandez’s mother has had a front-row seat for her daughter’s upsets of Osaka and Angelique Kerber, the former world No. 1. She leaned over the rails and screamed when Fernandez prevailed on the biggest points. Success naturally brings that kind of enthusiasm but can also produce a fear that the love will vanish if the winning stops.Fernandez’s father, Jorge, doubles as her coach. He is at home in Florida with her younger sister, she said, but he calls every day with a game plan for the next match, “just telling me what to do in the day before, and then he trusts in me and in my game, that I’m going to execute it as much as I can.”They may not be exhibiting poise under pressure as much as they are playing without pressure, which allows them to swing freely without the fear of not living up to expectations.Carlos Alcaraz and Leylah Fernandez continued to impress with their play into the second week at the U.S. Open.Frank Franklin II/Associated PressJohn Minchillo/Associated Press“I think it’s just the young people” who can play this way, Kerber said Sunday after Fernandez bested her in three sets with blistering forehands and fearless serves at the corners of the service box. Kerber, 33, has won three Grand Slam titles and was ranked No. 1 as recently as 2017. For several years she has battled injuries, inconsistency and the idea that she should still be at the top of the sport.“Playing completely without pressure, in this position, it’s impossible, but I wish,” she said.Oddly, for much of the past decade, players, coaches and tennis officials generally accepted that the sport had moved beyond teenagers. Equipment that allowed for powerful shots from previously impossible angles extended points and matches, accentuating the importance of mature strength and conditioning to a degree that made it too hard for teenagers to compete at the top level of the game, especially on the men’s side.Then Coco Gauff, the rising American, started winning matches at Wimbledon in 2019, when she was just 15. Now a collection of her physically advanced peers are making their mark.Raducanu beat Rogers in her debut in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday. On Tuesday, Fernandez plays Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, while Alcaraz takes on Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.Raducanu, who is in her first summer of playing top level competitions, impressed once again Monday. She dropped the first two games, then reeled off 11 of the next 12 games and won 6-2, 6-1, showing off her exquisite combination of graceful athleticism and smooth, lacing groundstrokes. She has lost a combined total of just four games in her last two matches. When Rogers’ last ball settled into the net, Raducanu dropped her racket, fell to her knees and covered her eyes in disbelief.Young fans waited for Fernandez after her match on Sunday.Elsa/Getty ImagesMartin Blackman, the general manager for player development at the United States Tennis Association, said in recent years the better, and more physically developed, older teenagers had begun to shun junior tournaments, instead cutting their teeth in low-level professional events, while still finding a balance between competition, training and rest.“So they come in under the radar and then they emerge on the big stage,” he said.There is nothing that can come close to guaranteeing that they will not succumb to the challenges of the game — being on the road for months on end, living up to rising expectations, and dealing with the inevitable losses and physical ailments.“It is a perilous prospect,” said David Law, a tennis commentator for the BBC who previously worked for ATP, said Sunday as he settled in for Raducanu’s match. “It can go wrong. We’ve seen it go wrong.”Law does not have to look far to be reminded of that. One of his BBC colleagues is Laura Robson, who at 18 made the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 2012 with wins over Kim Clijsters, one of the top players in the world, and Li Na, the Chinese star. She appeared on her way to greatness. Two years later she was battling a wrist injury from which she would never fully recover.Raducanu during her upset win on Monday.Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports, via ReutersFrances Tiafoe, the 23-year-old American, spoke Sunday night after his fourth-round loss to Auger-Aliassime about his efforts to work his way back from the hype surrounding his quick rise into the top 50 in 2018, when he was seen as the savior of American men’s tennis.“I thought I was just going to just keep going,” he said. “It doesn’t work like that. Same work you did to get up there, the same work you need to keep going, keep working harder.”Despite the cautionary tales, it is nearly impossible not to be swept up in the excitement of watching new talent burst onto the scene at one of the biggest showcases in sports. It is a breathless experience that tennis has long thrived on.Alcaraz, a Spaniard already burdened with the nickname “the Next Rafa,” a reference to his countryman, the 20-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal, said he knows that he has become a subject of fascination back home over the past few days.“I’m trying not to think about this,” he said Sunday after beating Peter Gojowczyk of Germany in the fourth round, his second consecutive five-set win. “Just focus on New York, on every day here.”That is a good start, said Mary Carillo, the tennis commentator and former Grand Slam doubles champion. Carillo has seen tennis crack so many rising stars, from Andrea Jaeger, who tanked matches, to Mardy Fish, who battled anxiety and mental illness at the peak of his career. Her heart sinks every time she sees players checking their phones for what is being said about them on social media as soon as they walk off the court.Survival, she said, comes down to the stuff we learn in kindergarten: Get enough sleep; don’t talk to strangers; don’t listen to what they say about you; stay away from bad people.“You really better make sure you have the right people on your ball club,” Carillo said. “People who understand your values, your ambitions, how much you can take and most importantly when you need some time to step away.” More

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      Mardy Fish Can Relate to What Naomi Osaka Is Going Through

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      Anxiety forced Fish to withdraw from the 2012 U.S. Open. Now he is open about his mental health and works with the U.S.T.A. to provide more resources for players.The fourth-round singles matches at the U.S. Open were underway on Sunday, and Mardy Fish, the Davis Cup captain and former tennis star, was remembering the moment nine years ago in New York when he sat in the car sobbing with his wife, Stacey, and decided, with her help, that he could not play in the fourth round against Roger Federer.“It was just crazy anxiety, crazy, crazy, just how am I going to walk out on this court?” he said by telephone from his home in Los Angeles. “But it never, never would have crossed my mind, if my wife wasn’t there with me, that I wouldn’t play. We’re so trained to never show weakness, never show fear, to the other side of the court. But my wife saying, ‘Well, you don’t have to play’ — that part right there was like, right away, just instantly, I felt better, like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.”Fish is now 39, a parent with Stacey of two young children. He works in finance and is still involved in professional tennis as the U.S. Davis Cup captain. But he is also a mentor, sharing his experience as a prominent athlete who had to deal with mental health problems when the subject was close to taboo in professional sports.“The reason why I’m so vocal or open about it now is that I didn’t have that success story to lean on when I was going through it,” he said.He is friendly with Naomi Osaka and her agent Stuart Duguid, and empathized when Osaka announced tearfully on Friday after her third-round defeat at the U.S. Open that she planned to take an indefinite break from the game that no longer brings her joy, even when she wins.“I would tell her, do whatever makes you happy,” Fish said. “She doesn’t have to hit another tennis ball the rest of her life, and if that makes her happy, that’s what she should do. I think she would regret that, but it’s whatever makes her want to get up in the morning and be happy. And whatever she’s been doing for the last couple months, or however long it’s been, is not doing that for her right now. So hopefully she finds peace and comfort.”Fish spent months housebound with repeated anxiety attacks after his withdrawal in New York. He received therapy and medication.After playing intermittently on tour, he returned to the U.S. Open in 2015 and won a round. It was the upbeat closure that he desired and is part of the journey he shares in a documentary that will be released on Tuesday as part of the Netflix “Untold” series.“To educate is really the most important thing,” Fish said. “To try to reach people that have never understood mental health or had issues with it or people around them who have had issues with it. To just educate them and just understand that Naomi Osaka is not going to pull out of the French Open just because she doesn’t want to talk to the press. And Simone Biles is not going to compete in the Olympics just because she doesn’t want to lose. The people that think that, and there are lots of them, it’s just unfortunate.”For Fish, one of the keys is to stop regarding mental health as separate from physical health.“It’s just health,” Fish said. “They call it mental health, but your brain is part of your body. It’s an injury. You just can’t see it.”Long considered one of the most talented players of his era, Fish improved his fitness and broke through in 2011 to reach the top 10 and qualify for the eight-man tour championships. But he said his rise also created new expectations and stresses.“My life changed, for the better initially, and then just my body and brain, the way I’m put together, couldn’t handle it,” he said.In 2012, he began experiencing a racing heartbeat that would wake him in the middle of the night and was diagnosed as a form of arrhythmia. Though he was treated for the condition, the underlying issue was an anxiety disorder, and while playing tennis was a refuge, he also began experiencing panic during his third-round win over Gilles Simon at the 2012 U.S. Open.“It was like my only comfort was taken away from me that night and it put me into basically rock bottom, zero serotonin left in my brain,” he said.“It’s not about being tough. I practice kickboxing and muay Thai right now, like, come on, I’ll take anyone on in the ring. You can punch me in the face all you want, and I’ll hit you back. I train that stuff. It’s not about being weak. I was strong mentally. I was a bulldog. To win, I would have sacrificed anything. I’ll put my competitiveness up against anyone’s. It’s not about that. It’s actually the opposite. Showing weakness and that vulnerability is actually showing strength, in my opinion.” Fish is working as a mentor during the U.S. Open as part of a new initiative from the United States Tennis Association to provide more mental health resources for players, including on-call psychologists. Claudia Reardon, the U.S.T.A.’s new mental health consultant, is overseeing the program.Mardy Fish walked off the court after losing to Feliciano López in five sets at the 2015 U.S. Open.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“Athletes who talk about their own use of mental health resources or their own struggles with mental health symptoms or disorders really do a wonderful service to sport in general in terms of demystifying and normalizing that experience,” Reardon said in an interview. “To have mental health symptoms is not incompatible with high-level sports, and it’s actually a sign of strength to reach out for help.”Fish said no player had yet contacted him during the tournament, but he said “tons of people” had contacted him since he began speaking openly about his condition.“People you’ve heard of; people you’ve never heard of,” he said. “Coaches, players, from tennis and other sports. It’s been really nice to be helpful in that way. I’ve made some great relationships because of it, so it’s been comforting in that way, to know I wasn’t alone and that other people wanted to be vulnerable as well, just not to the world.”Osaka, like Fish, has taken a more open approach, revealing this year that she struggled with anxiety and depression since winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the 2018 U.S. Open. In a round-table discussion before this year’s Open, she, Fish, Nick Kyrgios and Billie Jean King talked about multiple topics, including mental health and media relations.Though Osaka spoke before and during the Open about her desire to focus on the positives of being a world-class player, she struggled with her emotions in her loss on Friday to the Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez. She tossed her racket and knocked a ball into the stands in frustration and then teared up at a news conference. She said she did not know when she would play her next tennis match.“Recently, when I win, I don’t feel happy,” she said. “I feel more like relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad, and I don’t think that’s normal.”Fish was watching and listening.“That last press conference was her being really open,” he said. “I think it’s really important to put yourself first and what you feel is important to you and what makes you happy, and hopefully tennis is in there for her. I think it is. I know she understands her place in history. But the stuff outside the court has now gotten to her more than just wins and losses, and it’s unfortunate, but it’s important for her to make sure she feels comfortable again and happy again.” More

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      Even for the Greatest Players, Life in Tennis Can Be a Slog

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      Naomi Osaka is taking an indefinite break from tennis as she struggles to find meaning and joy from playing. It’s a sadly familiar script for the sport.The moment resonated with nearly every player who has ever picked up a racket, and especially those who have reached the pinnacle of tennis.A tearful Naomi Osaka sat behind a microphone late on Friday night and spoke of how the sport she has so dominated at times has become a joyless binary journey between relief after victories and sadness following losses. There is no contentment, no happiness.Then came what may be her last public words for some time.“I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while,” she said.How long is anyone’s guess. But while Osaka’s misery is her own — like the unhappiness of the unhappy families Tolstoy refers to at the start of Anna Karenina — tennis has seen this movie so many times before that an unavoidable question arises: What is it about this sport that makes so many of the best players in the world, a collection of athletes seemingly swaddled in wealth and fame and glory, so intolerably miserable?“I think with anything you’re passionate about, it’s always a love/hate relationship, because you want that thing so bad all the time, you want to be perfect,” Bianca Andreescu, the Canadian star who won the U.S. Open the first time she played it in 2019 but has battled injuries, inconsistency and the frustrations that come with both ever since, said after her third-round win Saturday. “In my case, it’s tennis.”Careers cut short because of broken minds rather than aging bodies haunt tennis like ghosts.Bjorn Borg of Sweden, a superstar of the 1970s and winner of 11 Grand Slam titles, lost his fourth U.S. Open final in 1981. He walked off the court, drove away in his car, and never played another Grand Slam tournament again. He was 25. Steffi Graf, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, quit at 30, just weeks after a French Open title and a Wimbledon final, saying she had lost her motivation and passion for the game. Andre Agassi and Jennifer Capriati succumbed to drug abuse and, in Capriati’s case, addiction, though they managed to mount comebacks.More recently, Paula Badosa of Spain has spoken of her battles with depression brought on in part by the frustrations and pressures of the game. Iga Swiatek of Poland, who won the 2020 French Open at 19, spoke after a recent loss of seeing little other than tennis balls when she closed her eyes at night. After losing a hard-fought match at the Olympics she sobbed into a towel as though she had lost a close relative.Paula Badosa has spoken of her depression brought on by the pressures of the game.Aaron Doster/Associated PressAthletes in team sports talk about the joy that comes from being a part of something larger than themselves, of heading into battle surrounded by a band of brothers and sisters.Golfers play an individual sport filled with crushing frustrations, but they walk peaceful, beautiful grounds through a morning or afternoon, a caddie by their side lending advice and providing technical and emotional support. When they lose, the golf course gets the best of them.Tennis players and coaches speak of the singular form of intensity and loneliness that accompanies the game.From the time they are small children, tennis players run on hard, often hot, and sometimes sweltering courts for hours as a human on the other side of the net tries to pound them into exhaustion and defeat. And they do it alone, prohibited from communicating with anyone during the most important matches.They cross borders and time zones and oceans often from week to week during a grueling, 11-month season. Sometimes they compete at 11 o’clock in the morning. The next day they might start at 11 at night. Sleeping and eating schedules are discombobulated.Tennis players talk differently when they talk about losing. The player not holding the trophy at the end of a tournament does not come in second place, and semifinalists do not finish in third or fourth. Pro golfers who finished fourth often say they had a great week. Marathoners and swimmers talk about being on the podium.As Novak Djokovic, no stranger to tennis misery, said the other night, “We are a particular sport that only has one winner.”The coronavirus pandemic has only magnified pressures and pitfalls, and added another kind of loneliness. For more than a year, at most tournaments players have had to limit their movements to their hotels, practice courts and competition venues, passing long hours alone in soulless rooms. They are tested for Covid-19 every few days, always one swab away from a 10-day isolation far from home.Daria Abramowicz, a sports psychologist who travels with Swiatek, said the sport in its modern form is an energy sucking journey of climbing the rankings ladder, defending your position, and cultivating fans, as well as sponsors, who can provide a financial safety net but bring their own demands.Daria Abramowicz, a sports psychologist, with Iga Swiatek in Australia in February.Alana Holmberg for The New York Times“If your tank is empty or almost empty, and if you feel burdened that there are a lot of challenges all around the performance, it is impossible to enjoy the process and enjoy this moment,” Abramowicz said.For better or worse, Osaka has taken on burdens.After the murder of George Floyd, she flew to Minneapolis to march with protesters. After the shooting of Jacob Blake, she single-handedly brought her sport to a standstill when she announced she would not play her semifinal match in the Western & Southern Open. She wore a mask with the name of a different victim of police violence onto the court for each of her matches at the U.S. Open last year.“She allows herself to really feel and experience that sadness,” said Pam Shriver, the former top player and Grand Slam doubles champion.In May, ahead of the French Open, Osaka tried to overturn years of tennis protocol when she refused to participate in post-match news conferences because she said they put too much stress on players, especially after losses. Her stance led to an ugly confrontation with tournament organizers and her withdrawal from the tournament after just one match.In Japan, where she has become a symbol of a new, multiracial vision of a traditionally homogeneous society, she embraced the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron and becoming the face of the Games. It was her first competition since the French Open.She has told the world about her battles with depression the past three years, a move that John McEnroe said took great courage. The seven-time Grand Slam winner, who 40 years later is still shaken by the sudden departure of Borg, his chief rival, said her candor probably helped countless people. McEnroe added that it may also make it harder for Osaka to thrive because of the increased attention it brings.“She’s the type of player we need around the sport another 10 years, that should win a bunch of more majors hopefully, if she’s in the right head space,” McEnroe said days before the start of the U.S. Open.After spending roughly two years on the pro tour with Swiatek, Abramowicz has concluded that players can survive careers — inevitably filled with losses and disappointment — only by working every day to build self-worth and self-confidence that is not measured by wins and rankings points but rather relationships. Only then can they find a way to enjoy the process, as enervating as it might be.“You need to maintain the core values, because without that there is nothing,” Abramowicz said. “There is just burned ground.” More

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      Naomi Osaka Loses to Leylah Fernandez at the U.S. Open

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      In tears after the third-round match, the defending champion said, “I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while.”Naomi Osaka, the defending women’s singles champion, was upset, 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4, in the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday night by Leylah Annie Fernandez, an unseeded 18-year-old from Canada.During her post-match news conference Osaka was in tears.“I honestly don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match,” she said. “I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while.”She flashed two thumbs up and left the room crying.The 73rd-ranked Fernandez, a quick and dynamic left-hander, had never faced Osaka, but she did not appear intimidated, clenching her fist after winning key points and often dictating play with her topspin forehand.It was a memorable evening for teenagers in Arthur Ashe Stadium. In the preceding match, Carlos Alcaraz, a dynamic Spanish 18-year-old, eliminated the No. 3 men’s seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, in a momentum-shifting thriller that came down to a fifth-set tiebreaker. That was the final match of the day session, and when the arena had been cleared and the night-session crowd had taken their seats, Fernandez followed Alcaraz’s lead, rallying to defeat the third-seeded Osaka.The upset came on the same court where Osaka had become a global star by surprising Serena Williams to win the 2018 U.S. Open. Osaka has since won three more Grand Slam singles titles, including one at last year’s Open.Fernandez had never faced Osaka but did not appear intimidated.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesOsaka broke Fernandez’s serve at 5-5 in the second set with a backhand winner and then served for the match. She had not faced even a break point at that stage but was unable to close out the victory. Fernandez went on to win the first five points of the ensuing tiebreaker, prompting Osaka to hurl her racket to the court. Fernandez then evened the match at one set apiece.“I guess I wanted to stay on the court a little bit longer, and I wanted to put on a show for everybody here,” Fernandez said in her post-match interview. “One hour was just not enough for me on court.”Fernandez quickly took the lead in the third set by breaking Osaka’s serve again in the opening game, and though Osaka began to find her range in her own service games, she could not solve Fernandez’s slower left-handed serve.Osaka did not hide her frustration. After Fernandez hit a net-cord winner in the second game of the final set to go up, 40-15, Osaka took hold of the ball and smacked it high into the stands, receiving a code violation for ball abuse.Fernandez would face no break points on her serve in the final set, and when it came time to serve for the most significant victory of her career, she held at love. At 30-0, she hit a terrific backhand drop-shot winner, and on her first match point, Osaka misjudged a forehand and hit it wide.Osaka appeared to be frustrated in the final set, hitting a ball high into the stands.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesArms up and smiling, Fernandez jogged forward to the net for the handshake.“From the very beginning, right before the match, I knew I was able to win,” she said.Fernandez’s victory was the first major upset of the U.S. Open women’s tournament, which, despite the depth of talent in the women’s game, had largely respected the seedings in the first two rounds. But Friday’s result was the latest setback for Osaka, the biggest star in the women’s game after Serena Williams. Since winning the Australian Open in February, she has played sparingly and has not won another title or even reached another semifinal.Osaka withdrew from the French Open after winning one round after she was fined for declining to take part in the mandatory post-match news conference. Later she explained in a post on social media that she had experienced depression since winning the 2018 U.S. Open and had often found it difficult to face the news media. She returned to her home in Los Angeles and decided to skip Wimbledon but returned to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, where she became the first tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron but lost in the third round to Marketa Vondrousova.Fernadez’s parents, left, after the upset.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesShe was beaten in the round of 16 of the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati by Jil Teichmann in her only North American tournament before this year’s Open. After defeating Maria Bouzkova in straight sets in the first round in New York, she received a walkover in the second round when Olga Danilova withdrew because of illness.But because of her lack of recent match play, the unexpected break did not turn out to be an advantage. Fernandez, brimming with energy, was able to capitalize. More

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      A Young Serbian Player Has a Not-So-Secret Weapon: Novak Djokovic

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      Olga Danilovic, who calls the world No. 1 her mentor, had been scheduled to play Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open, but pulled out an hour before her match.Olga Danilovic has never experienced an atmosphere like the show court matches at the U.S. Open. And now she will have to wait at least another year.Danilovic had been scheduled to play the reigning champion Naomi Osaka at noon on Wednesday, but withdrew from their second round match about an hour before it was played. Tournament officials said Danilovic had a medical issue and that Osaka would advance to the third round.Danilovic, a qualifier ranked 145th, has been mentored and inspired from a young age by the 20-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, a compatriot who has quietly offered support to many young Serbian players, even as he chases a spot atop the pantheon of men’s tennis history.“When you talk to him you think, ‘OK, now I’m going to beat everyone after talking to him,’” Danilovic told Tennis.com earlier this year. “His energy and dedication and his passion to play and work is something that pushes you to be better.”After winning his first round match on Tuesday night, Djokovic said Danilovic had been eager for a big-time opportunity against Osaka.“She was asking me about how it feels to be on the big stage,” Djokovic said. “Of course, you can say something, but then you really need to experience it. Hopefully she can use that to her own advantage, the motivation and inspiration.”Danilovic, 20 broke into the WTA Top 100 after winning the Moscow River Cup in 2018, when she was only 17, becoming the first player born this century to win a WTA title, but she struggled to win consistently.Djokovic emphasized that Danilovic was still “really young.”“She’s got the goods,” Djokovic said. “She’s really, really strong, fit, tall, lefty; don’t have many good lefty servers in both the men’s and women’s game. I think it’s quite an advantage. If she’s serving well, she can do damage to a lot of players.”What Danilovic is missing, Djokovic said, was experience.“The more matches she’s winning on this stage, the more comfortable she’s going to feel,” Djokovic said. “So, yes, we’ve been speaking a lot. I’ve been trying to help her out as much as I possibly can, her team, her family, with guidance on and off the court, some advices.”Danilovic has plenty of athletic experience in her family, although not in tennis. Her father, Sasha Danilovic, was a star shooting guard in European basketball leagues in the 1990s, and played for two seasons in the N.B.A. He is now the president of the Basketball Federation of Serbia.“She’s got the great genes for sport,” Djokovic said Tuesday.Djokovic watched Danilovic’s second-round match at the Australian Open courtside earlier this year.“I noticed at the very end,” Shelby Rogers, Danilovic’s opponent in that match, said. “She definitely won the cheering squad award today, I’ll tell you that.” More

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      Naomi Osaka on Her Tennis Roots: 'Home Is Queens and These Courts'

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      The defending U.S. Open champion got her start playing with her family in a city park in Jamaica, Queens.Just a few days before Naomi Osaka, the defending champion of the United States Open, stepped onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, Queens, for her first match of the 2021 tournament, the four-time Grand Slam title winner made another stop in Queens: to an unassuming public park in Jamaica.There, at Detective Keith L. Williams Park, Ms. Osaka attended the unveiling of five renovated tennis courts with new nets and surfaces, all of which are surrounded by newly painted graphics and symbols. With funding from Bodyarmor, the sports drink company based in Whitestone, Queens, Ms. Osaka served as a creative and practical adviser on how to refurbish the tennis courts.After all, it was personal for her.Ms. Osaka, whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese (and who represents Japan when she competes), was 3 years old when her family left Osaka, Japan, for Elmont, a hamlet on Long Island near the Queens border. Soon after, her father started to bring Naomi and her older sister, Mari, to the Jamaica courts because they were free and inclusive. The sisters learned how to play tennis there. Naomi went on to become the No. 1 player in the world in 2019.Naomi Osaka, in her early years, on the courts of Jamaica, Queens. “I remember hitting with some of the local players, men who were anywhere from 30 to 50 years old.”via Naomi Osaka“As a traveling athlete, the place that always feels like home is Queens and these courts,” said Ms. Osaka, who played tennis in Jamaica until her family left the area for Pembroke Pines, Fla., when she was 8. “Mari and I spent so much time here as kids, so many hours on these courts, practicing, and we really feel a connection to not only the courts but the area and the community.”Before Ms. Osaka visited either court in Queens, whether it was in a stadium or a public park, The Times caught up with her over email. The following is an edited and condensed version of the interview.Leonard Francois, Ms. Osaka’s father, took her and her sister to the courts in Jamaica because they were free and inclusive. Now Ms. Osaka would like for other young people to play there. Above: Ms. Osaka, right, with participants from a recent clinic.Calla Kessler for The New York TimesQ. How did you end up playing tennis in Jamaica?A. It was really expensive to practice at indoor clubs or any other court for that matter, especially considering how many hours we were usually on the court practicing. So my parents started taking me to play in Jamaica because that was all we really had as an option.What memories do you have from these courts?My dad was always coaching me and Mari. We mostly did drills, but I remember hitting with some of the local players, men who were anywhere from 30 to 50 years old. Because we were there so often, everyone knew who we were, and there was a sense of community. When I first started playing I remember some of them enjoyed kicking our butts. But as I got older, I could put up a fight against some of them. I remember one of them, he was tall and lanky. I started beating him too much, so my dad gave me certain rules to follow, like always hit the ball at him so he doesn’t have to move or start every game down 0-30.Naomi, on the left, with her older sister, Mari, at the U.S. Open in the early 2000s.via Naomi OsakaDo you have any vivid New York memories from then?On the weekends my mom would bring us into the city and take us into Chinatown, and we got this hot, fluffy scallion bread. I have no idea which specific shop it was, but it’s my favorite food, and I think about it when I think about New York City.It can be hard to find a tennis court in the city. Many have steep fees or long lines. How would you like to see this one operate?I would love to see people from the community play on this court, people who don’t necessarily have the means to pay for a club membership, people who just want to try and hit some balls for the fun of it, or kids who are trying to reach a dream. When we were young we got kicked off so many courts because we stayed too long or didn’t pay enough money. I wish for these courts to just let anyone play on a first come first served basis.A tennis clinic at Detective Keith L. Williams Park, in Jamaica, Queens.Calla Kessler for The New York TimesWhen you refurbished the courts you left a lot of symbols on them. Tell us about their meaning.Not only did I want to create a really cool court that kids could relate to and want to come see and play on, we wanted to leave behind a message that would hopefully inspire the community, especially the kids. So Mari, who is an amazing artist, and I collaborated on a mural that ties in some of our personal background as well as places and symbols.As you enter the court you’ll see a welcome sign in English, Haitian and Japanese, which represents our background. Music is also a huge part of my life, it’s my pre-match ritual, so you’ll see music notes painted on the edge of the court. There is also a trophy on one end to acknowledge my career and inspire others to reach their goals. Peace is incredibly important to me off the court, so you’ll see symbols of that. While the colors we used on the court are bright, they are also cool and calming. I’m a big fan of blues and purples.“I just hope everyone remembers that tennis is a game and is meant to be fun.”Calla Kessler for The New York TimesWould you be interested in developing other courts and programs in other underserved neighborhoods across the country?I am already working on a bunch of similar projects with my foundation, the Play Academy. We want to create opportunities for girls to have positive experiences with play and sport in the United States, Japan and Haiti. My parents also built tennis courts (as part of a school) in Jacmel, Haiti. My dad has family there, and it is not too far from the capital, which made it a convenient location.At the end of the day I just hope everyone remembers that tennis is a game and is meant to be fun. More

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      To Play Tennis, Naomi Osaka Finds a New Purpose. So Far, So Good.

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      The defending champion started the U.S. Open with a solid 6-4, 6-1 win over Marie Bouzkova, a hard-hitting Czech. Feeling good about herself is the next challenge.Naomi Osaka was back on the tennis court in New York on Monday night, not far from where she first started hitting a tennis ball in earnest as a child, and where her year of years began 12 months and what seems like a lifetime ago.The journey began with her refusal to play tennis after another police shooting of a Black man. Then came her provocative and powerful masks, each adorned with the name of a victim of police violence, as well as the third Grand Slam title of her career. Then there were magazine covers; a magical run in Australia; a standoff with the press in Paris; revelations that she struggles with mental health; her decision to skip Wimbledon, the biggest championship in tennis; followed by a triumphant-until-it-wasn’t return in Tokyo, where she lit the Olympic cauldron for her home country.Osaka has become the rare tennis player whose presence raises the temperature, even of something routine: a first-round match against an unheralded but improving 23-year-old Czech named Marie Bouzkova.If there is one thing Osaka has shown during her young career, it’s that nothing with her is routine.She walked into a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night as the defending champion and the No. 3 seed in the U.S. Open, a little more than six months removed from being declared virtually unbeatable on hard courts, where she has won each of her four Grand Slam titles.She has the sort of résumé that generally makes a player a heavy favorite, not just to win her first match, but also to capture her third U.S. Open singles title in four years. In the back of the court, she bounces on her toes like a boxer and does her trademark thigh-whack as she awaits her opponent’s serve.Steve Nash, the Hall of Fame basketball player and coach of the Brooklyn Nets, and Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion, were part of a crowd of nearly 20,000 that was far larger and more electric than the usual opening night of this 14-day tournament.Osaka drew a crowd far larger than the usual opening night of the U.S. Open.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesWould it have surprised if Osaka had lost, after the tumultuous ride she put herself on during the past year, and the mediocre results she produced this summer? She had played just nine matches since April and had a 5-5 record, including a default at the French Open.She didn’t lose, but Osaka did grind through a tough first set against Bouzkova, battling to find her rhythm against the hard-hitting Czech. She had to save eight break points. But after splitting the first eight games, Osaka started pushing Bouzkova deep into the back of the court with her clean, powerful strokes and, not surprisingly, also started winning most of the important points. She reeled off eight of the next nine games for a 6-4, 6-1 win.It was a far closer match than the score line suggested though, filled with tight games, long points and smash-mouth rallies, but also a more promising opening to her first Grand Slam in three months than the last time she undertook one of the sport’s most prized events.In May, Osaka arrived in Paris for the French Open declaring that she would no longer participate in the mandatory news conferences that all players sit through after a match, win or lose, if their presence is requested. She said that they caused too much mental stress, and that she would pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines instead.Within days, French Open organizers, with the support of leaders of the other three Grand Slam events, threatened to kick her out of the tournament. A day later, Osaka dropped out, announcing that she would take a break from the sport and telling the world that she had been battling depression on and off for nearly three years.On Sunday, a little more than 24 hours before her opening match at the U.S. Open, another pretournament declaration arrived. This one was far less confrontational and more nuanced, but still packed a defiant jab at anyone who has criticized her recent subpar performances, at the French Open, or the Olympics, where she was beaten badly in the round of 16 by Marketa Vondrousova, another young and unproven Czech player, ranked 38th in the world.Osaka during her Olympics loss.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIn an Instagram post that she also shared on Twitter, Osaka said she had realized, upon reflection, that she is far too critical of herself.“I think I’m never good enough,” she wrote. “I’ve never told myself that I’ve done a good job but I constantly tell myself that I suck or that I could do better.”She urged people to value the smallest accomplishments, even getting out of bed and fighting off procrastination, and she committed herself to celebrating her own accomplishments more.“Your life is your own and you shouldn’t value yourself on other people’s standards,” she wrote. “I know I give my heart to everything I can and if that is not good enough for some then my apologies, but I can’t burden myself with those expectations anymore. Seeing everything that’s going on in the world I feel like if I wake up in the morning that’s a win. That’s how I’m coming.”Exactly what Osaka meant can sometimes be anyone’s guess. She is something of a tennis sphinx, insisting that the message that people receive from her is more important than whatever message she might be trying to deliver.Also, she has admitted to a certain amount of impulsiveness. If she thinks or feels something, she may very well just say it, or write it, or do it, without thinking through all the consequences.On Friday though, Osaka allowed that she plays far better when she is playing with a purpose beyond competing for another trophy and $2.5 million, the prize for winning the U.S. Open.“I’m the type of player that plays better if I have a reason or if I have a goal or if I’m driven about something,” she said in a pretournament news conference. “In New York last year the biggest goal for me was just to push that message across. I feel like I did well there. Right now, I don’t really have that big of a message to push across at all. So it’s going to be really interesting to see what drives me.”Osaka seems to have dialed in on a purpose — to play without beating herself up for every error, every missed opportunity, and, if it happens, another loss, even if the chorus of critics grows louder.She has heard all the criticism, and she knows better than anyone that she has not made even a quarterfinal since March, much less a final of a Grand Slam. She knows how little she has played this year — remarkably little given her ranking and her stature as the winner of two of the last four Grand Slams, and four of the last 11.This, she hopes, will be the Grand Slam when she begins to get over her obsession with perfection that leads to disappointment when something she does is great but not flawless. Amid all the thousands of screaming fans on Monday night in the biggest stadium in tennis, Osaka’s ear remained tuned to the high-pitched yelps of a small girl seated low beside the court.“I just want to be happy with knowing that I did my best and knowing that even though I didn’t play perfect I was able to win a match in two sets,” she said after her win. “Or if I have to battle, play a match in three sets, knowing that I made a couple mistakes, but it’s OK at the end of the day because I’ll learn from the matches that I’ll keep playing.”“It’s not really a tournament thing,” she added as the night drew to a close. “It’s more like a life thing.” More

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      Naomi Osaka Wins Her First-Round Match at the U.S. Open

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      Naomi Osaka had a solid start to the defense of her U.S. Open title, posting a 6-4, 6-1 win over Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic that was a little closer than the final score suggested.Osaka and Bouzkova were dead even through a hard-fought first set filled with tight games, long points and hard-hitting rallies. In the 10th game, Osaka finally forced Bouzkova into a backhand error on her third set point to take the lead with her first service break and claim the opening set.Osaka seemed to settle in from there, jetting to a 5-0 lead in the second set before Bouzkova was finally able to hold her serve. Osaka finished Bouzkova off in the next game with a forehand winner down the line that caught the edge of the paint.This was a far different atmosphere than anything Osaka experienced on her march to the championship last year, when no spectators were allowed at the tournament. She played Monday at Arthur Ashe Stadium in front of nearly 20,000 fans who were loud all night and have begun to embrace her as one of their own. Osaka was born in Japan and represents that nation but grew up largely in New York and Florida.“It feels kind of amazing to play in front of everyone again,” Osaka said after the match, “The energy here is unmatched.” More