Naomi Osaka Defeats Victoria Azarenka To Win The 2020 US Open For The Second-Time In Her Career.

Naomi Osaka performs a sensational comeback from a flawless first set to win the 2020 US Open title, defeating Victoria Azarenka in three sets at Flushing Meadows in New York.

The 22-year-old Japanese star bounced back from a poor start, to beat the 31-year-old Belarusian 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a match that lasted about an hour and 53 minutes on Saturday.

Naomi who has never lost a grand slam final, denied Azarenka the US Open crown for a third time having also finished runner-up in 2012 and 2013.

Azarenka was playing in her first major final in seven years and has had a remarkable and unexpected run, aiming to be the first mother to win a Grand Slam singles title since Kim Clijsters won the Australian Open in 2011.

Way to the final, Azarenka defeated 38-year-old Serena Williams in a ferociously contested semifinal on Thursday.

The final was played at a nearly empty 23,000 capacitu Arthur Ashe staduim, as fans were not permitted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This would be Naomi's third Grand slam title, and her second career US Open title in three years, having beaten Serena Williams in a controversial straight-set match to win the title in 2018 , and then defeated Petra Kvitova at Melbourne Park to win the 2019 Australian Open.

Naomi ranked No.9 in the world coming into the tournament has not really been in a good form, after surprisingly sacking her coach Sascha Bajin shortly after her victory in Australia last year. 

She becomes the first US Open women’s singles champion in 26-years to lost the first set and fought back to win the trophy since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario did it in 1994 against Steffi Graf.

Naomi and an old friend 🏆🥰@naomiosaka | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/tpUwSW8v7b

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 12, 2020

CloudNine Sports understands that though born in her mother's home country Japan, Naomi is now based in the United States, and has been deeply involved in the social justice movement, raising awareness for Black victims of police brutality and racial injustice.

She wore seven different face masks to the tournament for her pre-game interviews, with each of the mask bearing different victims names such as, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile and in Saturdays final, she wore a mask bearing the name of a 12-year-old black American boy Tamir Rice whom according to reports was shot and killed in Cleveland by a white police officer six years ago.

Following the victory, Naomi Osaka congratulated her opponent and then laid down in the middle of the court to savor the moment.

“I always see everyone sort of collapse after match point, but I always think you may injure yourself, so I wanted to do it safely," Naomi said after the victory.

“I just thought it would be very embarrassing to lose this in under an hour, and I told myself to “stop having a really bad attitude.”

"I would say the thing that I learned was just no matter what happens, in every match I have an opportunity. It's up to me to see the opportunity and to take it or not." 

When asked about the message behind making he voice heard, Osaka told the on-court interviewer at the awards ceremony:

“The point was to make people start talking,”

"I've been inside of the bubble so I'm not really sure what's really going on in the outside world. All I can tell is what's going on on social media and I feel like the more retweets it gets – that's so lame, but you know, the more people will have to talk about it."