Japanese Star Naomi Osaka trounced her idol, Serena Williams to lift her first Grand Slam in New York, winning 6-2 6-4.
Her victory, the second over Williams, denied the American her dream record-equalling 24th Grand Slam, that would have put her on the same pedestal with Australian Margaret Court.
The match was marred by rantings by Serena after the umpire warned her about a non verbal message passed to her by her French Coach Patrick Mouratoglou. He also warned her about her misbehaviour, smashing her racket.
But Serena was unhinged thereafter, shouting expletives on the umpire, who imposed the sanction of awarding one game penalty to her opponent. This took Naomi 5-3 in the second set.
The sanction brought out tearful emotions from Serena. US Open officials could not help her and after gathering herself, Serena held her game to reduce the score to 5-4.
Thereafter, she sank on her seat crying during the short break before Naomi served for the match to win her first record Grand Slam as a Japanese player.
She also picked the $3.8 million winner’s cheque.
Osaka and Williams had played against each other once before, at Miami in March, and it was the Japanese upstart who used her formidable power to topple her idol in straight sets.
She repeated the same feat on Saturday night. But more important for her was that she had lived a dream.
“Even when I was a little kid, I always dreamed that I would play Serena in a final of a Grand Slam. Just the fact that it’s happening, I’m very happy about it,” Osaka said after her semi-final win over 2017 runner-up Madison Keys.
