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Post by Admin on Feb 21, 2021 5:06:42 GMT
Watch the Match Highlights from Naomi Osaka's triumph over Jennifer Brady, in the 2021 Australian Open Women's Singles Final. The Japanese third seed overpowered American Jennifer Brady 6-4 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena and is now in the bracket of luminaries like Kim Clijsters and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who also won four Slams. With her career still budding at the age of 23, further major trophies will be expected to follow, particularly if Osaka can convert her hardcourt form to clay and grass. “Right now, I’m trying to go for five,” she told reporters after winning a 21st completed match in succession. “I like to take things not big-picture. For me, I like to live in the moment. “But I don’t want to weigh myself down with pressure and expectations. I know that the people that I’m playing against are the best players in the world and if my time comes to win another Grand Slam, it will come. Osaka joined Roger Federer and Monica Seles as players to win all four of their first Grand Slam finals. She said her big match credentials might have stemmed from childhood when she felt more motivated to win in front of a rare audience. “I didn’t play a lot of tournaments when I was a kid, so I’d always want to take the opportunity whenever someone was watching me, I’d feel like it was more fun that way,” she said. “So maybe that’s how I developed wanting a crowd and wanting to play in front of more people. “But I also think it’s because I watched a lot of Grand Slams growing up and seeing the crowds, seeing Arthur Ashe Stadium, seeing how it was in Australia and Rod Laver, and wanting to play in front of people and wanting to be, you know, the person holding up the trophy.” There was nearly two years’ wait between her first and second braces of Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows and Melbourne Park, a period in which Osaka struggled to deal with her standing in the game. She said she was now far more self-aware. “I think what I have learned on and off the court is it’s okay to not be sure about yourself,” she added. “I feel like I’ve always forced myself to be strong or whatever. “I feel like the biggest thing that I want to achieve is -- this is going to sound really odd, but hopefully I play long enough to play a girl that said that I was once her favourite player or something.”
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2021 6:31:33 GMT
Naomi Osaka was all smiles on Saturday while celebrating her win at the 2021 Australian Open. The 23-year-old tennis sensation beat Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 at the Australian Open final, marking her second Australian Open win and fourth Grand Slam title. While posing for pictures with her trophy at the Government House in Sydney, Osaka also stepped into her new role as Louis Vuitton’s House ambassador. She sported a colorful blouse and chain link bag from the label, as well as its buzzy Archlight sneakers, featuring a wave-shaped outsole, blue side stripes and low-cut ankle. In a statement released in January, the Japanese-American star expressed her excitement at taking on the role. “Aside from tennis, my most treasured passion is fashion; and there is no brand more iconic than Louis Vuitton,” she said. “It is such an honor to work with Nicolas — he’s a designer I admire so much and we share a mutual love of Japanese culture and style. To become a global brand ambassador is truly a dream come true for me.” Coinciding with the announcement, Osaka appeared in the brand’s spring 2021 campaign wearing a vibrant mini dress featuring bold graphic prints.
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2021 19:27:44 GMT
Ash Barty is being labelled somewhat of a false World No.1 after the Aussie star kept the top ranking despite Naomi Osaka winning the Australian Open. Barty's reign as World No.1 will continue despite her loss in the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park and No.2 Osaka's title triumph. Barty sat out the majority of the 2020 season while her rivals (including Osaka) toiled away on the court. Osaka won the US Open in September and the Australian Open on Saturday night, taking her career tally of grand slam titles to four. Yet the Japanese star is still over 1300 rankings points behind Barty - 7835 to 9186. Scroll back up to restore default view. The bizarre turn of events comes down to dramatic changes the WTA made to the rankings system midway through 2020. Rather than the traditional 52-week window that was previously used to calculate rankings points, the WTA brought in a new system that sees a player's best 16 results over a two-year period count towards their points. The change was brought in at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when players were withdrawing from events or choosing not to travel overseas. Barty decided to stay in Australia rather than play the US and French Opens in 2020, but didn't take a hit in the rankings.
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Post by Admin on Feb 24, 2021 5:00:33 GMT
With a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jennifer Brady in the Australian Open final on Saturday, Naomi Osaka captured her fourth Grand Slam title and etched her name even deeper into the history books. Here are just 10 of the things Osaka achieved with her latest major triumph: She’s the seventh active player, male or female, to have four Grand Slam titles. She’s the fourth female active player, after Serena Williams (23), Venus Williams (seven) and Kim Clijsters (four), and the seventh overall if you include Roger Federer (20), Rafael Nadal (20) and Novak Djokovic (18). She's just the third player in the Open Era, male or female, to win their first four major finals. The only other two are Federer, who won his first seven before losing the 2006 French Open final to Nadal, and Monica Seles, who won her first six before losing the 1992 Wimbledon final to Steffi Graf. She’s still undefeated once she reaches the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. The only four times she has reached the quarterfinals of a major are at the 2018 US Open, the 2019 Australian Open, the 2020 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open, and all four times she has gone on to lift the trophy. She has now won four of the last six hard-court majors. She has also won 33 of her last 35 matches at hard-court Majors, the two losses coming against Belinda Bencic in the fourth round of the 2019 US Open, 7-5, 6-4, and to Coco Gauff in the third round of the 2020 Australian Open, 6-3, 6-4. She’s the 11th woman in the Open Era to save match point en route to a major title. Osaka rallied from double match point down in the fourth round in Melbourne against Garbine Muguruza, serving at 3-5, 15-40 in the third set—she would win four games in a row to sneak it out, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. And she’s just the sixth woman to save multiple match points en route to winning a major title, after Martina Navratilova (1986 US Open), Jennifer Capriati (2002 Australian Open), Serena (2003 and 2005 Australian Open), Justine Henin (2005 French Open) and Caroline Wozniacki (2018 Australian Open). She’s now 45-1 in her career at majors after winning the first set. Her only loss at a major from a set up was a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 loss to Simona Halep in the third round of the French Open in 2016. She has now won 39 of her last 40 matches on the tour after winning the first set. Since mid-May 2019, her only loss from a set up came in the semifinals of Brisbane in January 2020, a 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 6-2 loss to Karolina Pliskova—and she had a match point at 6-5 in the second set of that one.
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Post by Admin on Feb 27, 2021 0:29:35 GMT
Naomi Osaka's impressive performance at the 2021 Australian Open this past weekend put a smile on at least one fan's face — and now the tennis star is sending some love back. The 23-year-old athlete, who won her fourth Grand Slam at the Australian Open last Saturday, shared a photo on Twitter Monday that captured the ball girl with a big smile on her face while watching Osaka from behind at Rod Laver Arena. The ball girl, dressed in green and a blue hat, was kneeling down in the photo while looking up at the Japanese tennis champion, who had both of her hands and racket in the air in celebration at the women's singles final. "Was looking at pics from AO and I just noticed the ball girl in this. hi," Osaka captioned her post, adding several emojis. Osaka, ranked third in the world, defeated No. 22 seed Jennifer Brady in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, in the women's final. She last won the Australian Open in 2019, while Brady had never previously been in a Grand Slam final. "She's such an inspiration to us all," Brady said about Osaka after the match. "What she's doing for the game is amazing, getting the sport out there. I hope young girls at home are watching and are inspired by what she's doing."
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