The anticipation of the U.S. Open has reached new heights this year! After all, it will mark the comeback of the Bad Boy of Tennis, Nick Kyrgios and alongside him will be the Japanese tennis star, Naomi Osaka, in the mixed doubles! Will the tennis world witness the rise of an iconic pair this year? Well, that still remains to be seen. Nevertheless, Osaka has expressed her candid reflections on social media about her upcoming mixed doubles in the U.S. Open.

Resharing Evolve’s Instagram post on her story, featuring the original post of the news of mixed doubles candidates for the season, Naomi Osaka wrote, “The fact that we are the veterans in this group just made me sit down in silence.” This is indeed true, as apart from Nick Kyrgios and herself, the others who will be joining them are Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Aryna Sabalenka, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa. Naturally, among the new-generation players, the most striking ones are Kyrgios, who is 29 years old, and Osaka, who is 26 years old.

Therefore, they are the older ones in the group with more professional experience on-court and Osaka has embraced the ‘veteran’ status. Referring to this, she humorously pointed out how it came as a shock to her. However, to fans, this unique pair also comes as a total surprise. Although the tennis world has seen both of them as business collaborators and friends previously, on-court they have never swung their racquets together.

Not only that, their off-court nature is also strikingly different from each other. While Kyrgios has a reputation for bluntly putting his thoughts and candid remarks forward, such is not the case with the four-time Grand Slam champion. She is comparatively introverted on and off the court. Therefore, questions about their on-court pairing raised eyebrows in the tennis world. Some couldn’t simply believe it, “Naomi with that man??” while others warned Kyrgios to “stay away.”  However, Osaka is not bothered by these comments. Instead, she is excited to be a part of the “The U.S. Open Mixed Madness,” scheduled for August 20 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

With her hopes high, Osaka is coming off after her Grass-courts championship event in Berlin. However, her grass-court season began before that, in the Libema Open. There she reached the quarterfinals, after coming from a second-round exit in the French Open. On the other hand, Kyrgios, who has played only a single match since October 2022, has remained sidelined from tennis due to his wrist injury. However, when it comes to making a comeback with Naomi Osaka, Kyrgios is all ready! After all, his deep connection with the former Australian Open champion is not new!

Naomi Osaka sees a “brother” in Nick Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios, who remained away from tennis for the entirety of last year due to injury, gained much popularity as a podcast host of “Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios.” He has invited various reputed players to his podcast over the last year. Naomi Osaka, whose media company Hana Kuma is a collaborator of the show, also made an appearance once on the podcast. There, she revealed how their bond goes way beyond just sharing a common interest in Osaka’s EVOLVE sports agency, in which Kyrgios became her first-ever client.

“I’ve seen you on TV and around the scene and stuff… and I’ve always thought to myself, like, ‘That’s like my brother from a different universe,’ you know? Because there’s not a lot of melanated folks in tennis? So, I just kind of feel an alliance, sometimes” As both of them continue their new partnership on-court, tennis fans are eagerly waiting to see their amazing bond in tennis!