Naomi Osaka was overcome with emotion after she won her first match at the U.S. Open.
Osaka, 26, defeated Jelena Ostapenko in a 6-3, 6-2 victory on Tuesday, August 27, advancing herself to the second round. After her win, Osaka wiped the sweat and tears off her face with a towel. As she continued to soak in her victory, the tennis player got more visibly emotional.
“I was trying not to cry when I was walking out,” Osaka said to reporters in her post-game interview. “Last year I was watching Coco [ Gauff ] play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again. I didn’t know if I could .
.. just to play this match and just to be in this atmosphere means so much to me.
” Osaka, who has won four Grand Slam championships, shared that returning to the U.S. Open this year has been an emotional journey.
She confessed that seeing all the faces in the stadium rooting her on made the moment even sweeter. (Osaka did not participate in last year’s tournament since she was on maternity leave after welcoming daughter Shai, 13 months, with boyfriend Cordae in July 2023.) “I grew up here, so just seeing kids, and then remembering my daughter, but seeing kids coming and watching me play and just remembering that I was a kid .
.. [it] made me very emotional,” she said.
“Just seeing the stadium really full, it meant a lot, because I was, like, ‘Oh, I hope people come watch me play.’” Two months after welcoming her daughter, Osaka announced her intention to return to tenni.