Former US Open champion Naomi Osaka made a triumphant return to Flushing Meadows on Tuesday, securing an impressive 6-3, 6-2 victory over 2017 Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko in the opening round. The Japanese star, currently ranked 88th in the world, missed last year’s tournament after giving birth to her daughter.
Osaka’s last appearance in New York was in 2022, when she suffered a shock first-round exit. However, she was determined to make a statement this year, and she did so in style against Ostapenko, who reached the quarterfinals last year by defeating world no. 1 Iga Swiatek.
Osaka fired 19 winners and wrapped up the victory in just 63 minutes, leaving Ostapenko with no answers. The crowd inside the Louis Armstrong Stadium erupted in applause as Osaka secured the win, and the four-time Grand Slam winner was left in tears.
“I so badly wanted to step on these courts again,” Osaka said. “I didn’t know if I could … Just to win this match, just to be in this atmosphere means so much to me.”
Osaka admitted that the match was stressful, but she refused to give up. “She was hitting some really good shots,” Osaka said. “I just told myself, ‘keep going, keep fighting for every point and maybe you’ll have an opportunity.’ And eventually I did but then I looked up and saw so many faces, so I was like, whoa!'”
This was Osaka’s first win over a top-10 player in four years. She previously made two quarterfinals at tour events in 2024 but never made it past the second round at the majors. However, the US Open holds a special place in her heart.
“It’s like a combination of a lot of different things,” Osaka said. “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 … made me very emotional.”
“Just seeing the stadium really full, it meant a lot, because I was, like, ‘Oh, I hope people come watch me play.”
Osaka will next face Czech Karolina Muchova in the second round.
