Naomi Osaka’s outstanding US Open run has come to an end.
In a match that ended well after midnight on Friday, Osaka fell to No. 8 Amanda Anisimova 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 3-6 in the semifinal. Anisimova will now face top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open women’s singles final.
Both players were dialed in from the start, and Osaka ultimately took the highly contested first set after winning the tiebreak.
It was more of the same in the second set, but this time it was Anisimova who won the tiebreaker to force a third set.
After two back-and-forth contests, Anisimova controlled the third set and won 6-3 to advance.
Osaka started her US Open run with wins over Greet Minnen in the first round and Hailey Baptiste in the second round. She passed her first big test when she beat Daria Kasatkina in the third round, and kept things going with a massive win over Coco Gauff to advance to the quarterfinals. Gauff then bested Karolína Muchová to advance to her first major semifinal since 2021.
“It means so much. I’m actually surprised I’m not crying,” Osaka said in her on-court interview after the win over Muchová. “It’s been so much hard work that you guys haven’t seen, I’m just grateful to my team and happy to be healthy.”
A loss in the semifinal doesn’t change the fact that the US Open has been a massive success for Osaka.
Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam champion, including two at the US Open, but she hadn’t made it as far as the fourth round in a major since 2021, when she won the Australian Open.
Since then, she’s taken hiatuses from the sport for mental health reasons and for the birth of her child in 2023. She’s spent the past year-plus trying to work her way back to the top of the tennis world.
After an tremendous run at the US Open, it’s fair to say that Osaka is back.
AloJapan.com