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regular-article-logo Saturday, 05 October 2024

Australian Open: Naomi Osaka clinches second title

The four-time grand slam champ likes to live in the moment

Reuters Melbourne Published 21.02.21, 02:12 AM
Japan’s Naomi Osaka with the Australian Open women’s singles trophy in Melbourne after  beating Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka with the Australian Open women’s singles trophy in Melbourne after beating Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday. Getty Images

Naomi Osaka added a second Australian Open title to her two US Open crowns on Saturday but said she’d rather “live in the moment” than set ambitious targets for further Grand Slam glory.

The Japanese third seed overpowered American Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena and is now in the bracket of luminaries like Kim Clijsters and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who also won four Slams.

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With her career still budding at the age of 23, further major trophies will be expected to follow. “Right now, I’m trying to go for five,” she told reporters after winning a 21st completed match in succession.

“I like to take things not big picture. For me, I like to live in the moment. But I don’t want to weigh myself down with pressure and expectations. I know that the people that I’m playing against are the best players in the world and if my time comes to win another Grand Slam, it will come.

Osaka joined Roger Federer and Monica Seles as players to win all four of their first Grand Slam finals.

There was nearly a two years’ wait between Osaka’s first and second braces of Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows and Melbourne Park.

She said her big-match credentials might have stemmed from childhood when she felt more motivated to win in front of a rare audience.

“I didn’t play a lot of tournaments when I was a kid, so I’d always want to take the opportunity whenever someone was watching me, I’d feel like it was more fun that way,” she said. “So maybe that’s how I developed wanting a crowd and wanting to play in front of more people.

“But I also think it’s because I watched a lot of Grand Slams growing up and seeing the crowds... and wanting to play in front of people and wanting to be, you know, the person holding up the trophy.”

In the mixed doubles final on Saturday, American Rajeev Ram and Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova beat Aussies Matthew Ebden and Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-4.

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