{"id":17015,"date":"2018-10-01T23:23:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T23:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17015"},"modified":"2018-10-01T23:23:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T23:23:25","slug":"japans-naomi-osaka-reflects-on-bittersweet-us-open-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=17015","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s Naomi Osaka reflects on ‘bittersweet’ US Open win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Open champion Naomi Osaka has said that her landmark victory in New York last month still felt “bittersweet” after a controversial and dramatic final against her childhood idol Serena Williams.<\/p>\n

The Japanese<\/a> player’s maiden Grand Slam win was overshadowed<\/a> by a row between the US tennis star and chair umpire Carlos Ramos, which resulted in the 23-time Grand Slam champion being docked a game and fined $17,000 over a string of outbursts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Osaka was reduced to tears during the trophy presentation as an angry, partisan home crowd at Flushing Meadows booed the match officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The memory of the US Open is a little bittersweet,” Osaka said after a routine 6-4, 6-3 first round win over Kazakh Zarina Diyas in the China Open on Monday.<\/p>\n

“The day after, I didn’t want to think about it because it wasn’t necessarily the happiest memory for me. I wanted to move on at that point.”<\/p>\n

Osaka said her feelings after winning a first Grand Slam could be compared to eating green tea ice cream.<\/p>\n

“When you bite into it, it’s sweet but also strong. That’s how that memory feels… of course, I’m happy I won a Grand Slam. I don’t think there’s anything that can take away from that. But I don’t know.<\/p>\n

“I feel like, not that when I look back on it that it’s a bad memory, but it was so strange, I didn’t want to think about it. I wanted to push it to the side.”<\/p>\n

‘Ugly scene’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With the first set under the Japanese player’s belt, Williams clashed with the Portuguese official when she was given a warning for receiving coaching – not permissible at Grand Slams.<\/p>\n

A few games later, Williams, who was seeking a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title, received a second warning and a point penalty for breaking her racket.<\/p>\n

“You owe me an apology,” Williams said, arguing about the coaching violation. “I have never cheated in my life!”<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Olympic champion was later docked a game at 4-3 for calling Ramos a “thief”, which allowed Osaka to serve for the match and seal the historic victory.<\/p>\n

Many tennis fans and commentators said it was a shame that Osaka’s win was overshadowed by the controversy around William’s on-court “tantrums”.<\/p>\n

“A shame that the spotlight remains on Serena William’s behaviour and not the superior performance of Naomi Osaka,” wrote Rebecca Powell on Twitter. “Let’s celebrate her win not Serena’s loss.”<\/p>\n

\n

A shame a woman \u201cfighting for women\u201d has overshadowed what should have been a triumphant moment for another woman #UsOpenFinal<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/sOvIcwpiq7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Natalie Jacobs (@TheRealNatalieJ) September 9, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The ugly scene overshadowed the dominant performance of Osaka, who quietly wept through a championship ceremony that should have been a coronation of a great new star for women’s tennis,” wrote Tom Perrotta, sports correspondent at the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

Osaka withdrew from last week’s Wuhan Open in China, hours after losing to former world number one Karolina Pliskova in the Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

“I was lucky Tokyo was so close (to the US Open) because I could immediately focus on the next tournament,” Osaka added.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t think too much about what was going on… so maybe if I did have that time, I’d be overwhelmed… I’m still trying to take my mind off of it.”<\/p>\n

World number six Osaka is on track to qualify for the WTA’s season-ending tournament in Singapore this month.<\/p>\n

“I’m really focused on playing the Asian swing,” she said. “For me the biggest goal is trying to get into Singapore.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Open champion Naomi Osaka has said that her landmark victory in New York last month still felt “bittersweet” after a controversial and dramatic final against her childhood idol Serena Williams. The Japanese player’s maiden Grand Slam win was overshadowed by a row between the US tennis star and chair umpire Carlos Ramos, which resulted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":17016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}