The US Open 2020 winner Naomi Osaka received a grand welcome when she returned to Japan with the title. She deserved every bit of appreciation and praise for her extraordinary performance throughout the tournament. The 3-time Grand Slam winner defeated the in-form Belarusian tennis player Victoria Azarenka to win the US Open 2020. What was peculiar about her gameplay was that she made a comeback in the final and won 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to clinch her second Major at Flushing Meadows.
Her training in the long-break due to the pandemic, her determination to win, and her resolute character was all evident the moment she started the tournament. It looked as if she was not only there to win, but to dominate.
In a recent WTA Insider Podcast, she revealed some startling things. There was a question regarding how this Major title (US Open 2020) compared to her previous ones at the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
“I think in this run, I’m way more grateful. When I was younger, I feel like everything just went really fast and I wasn’t aware of how much work it took to win a Grand Slam,” began an enthusiastic Osaka.
“Failing to win after the Australian Open hurt my feelings”-Naomi Osaka
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
“I think now after failing, which I guess it’s not a failure, but failing to win a Grand Slam after the Australian Open. It really hurt my feelings a lot,” admitted the 22-year-old Japanese.
She also owned up to the fact that she had faced a breakdown. But that led her to think, act, and set herself some goals. She had started practicing harder than ever and that hard work yielded good results for her.
ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below this ad
“I just sort of meditated on it and I told myself if you work as hard as you can, hopefully, the results will come. I worked really hard during quarantine and the result came. So I’ll just keep using that method until it fails me again.”
It is perseverance that works when the going gets tough. Hope is a big virtue. The journey of Naomi Osaka is an epitome in this regard. It is important to set goals, but more important to work on them. Osaka has achieved so much at a young age and fans further expect her to go down o the history books of the sport.