NEW YORK – Naomi Osaka hit the racket against the Arthur Ashe Stadium track. Moments later, he launched his team, sending it bouncing and sliding into the middle of the net. Then a full peak appeared near the baseline.
Osaka’s game was off. His composure was gone. In the end, the crowd applauded him for taking too long between points and turning his back on the track.
Soon, Osaka’s U.S. Open title defense ended in the third round with a 5-7, 6-7 (2) and 6-4 defeat Friday night against Leylah Fernandez, an 18-year-old Canadian who ranks 73rd and had never been so far in the Grand Slam competition.
Still, Fernandez later stated, “Just before the game, I knew I was capable of winning.”
Osaka? He came in with a streak of 16 winning games in majors and four career trophies, all on hard courts. But this was Osaka’s first Slam tournament since he left the French Open before the second round for a mental health break – he was also at Wimbledon, before taking part in the Tokyo Olympics, where he lit the cauldron – and maybe free time was a problem.
Another possible factor in his failure to close things off while serving for the 6-5 victory over left-hander Fernandez in the second set: Osaka had not competed since Monday. This is because the woman he was supposed to meet in the second round, Olga Danilovic, retired because she was ill.
The Summer Olympics marked Osaka’s first action since May 30 at the French Open. That day, Osaka skipped its mandatory press conference after the first-round victory in Paris, getting a $ 15,000 fine and a warning from Slam leaders that they could face a suspension. He responded by retiring from Roland Garros, explaining that he feels anxiety when he speaks to the media and that he has been dealing with depression for years.
The 23-year-old, who was born in Japan and has lived in the United States since the age of 3, left the track after seven games to change her dress and dress in a yellow dress. It was pretty good during the initial stretch. He grabbed 12 of the last 13 points, including the last nine, with a break in love to go up from 6 to 5 and a catch in love with the help of a pair of aces at 112 mph and 114 mph to finish.
Osaka seemed on track for a similar conclusion in the second set, with a 6-5 lead and a serve. But when he sailed first, Fernandez had his first break of the game to get the 6th.
“I guess I wanted to stay a little longer on the track. And I wanted to do a show for everyone here,” Fernandez said. “An hour wasn’t enough for me to be on the track.”
And so began the downward spiral of Osaka. He fell behind 5-0 in the tiebreaker that followed, losing shots and showing his frustration, as he has occasionally done in the past, throwing the racket. Alison Hughes, the referee of the presidency, did not sanction Osaka at the time, although he was later warned to hit a ball in the stands.
“Honestly, I didn’t focus on Naomi,” Fernandez said, “I just focused on myself and what I had to do.”
More precisely, Osaka was not at its best. He left the court with a white towel over his head after the second set and never got his game to continue the rest of the way.
Undoubtedly, Fernandez had something to do with it, especially for his service. He won 18 of 19 points from the first serve (and never faced a break point) in the third set.
Fernandez’s quick, knee-jerk grounding style at the baseline is reminiscent of another left-hander, three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber who won the 2016 U.S. Open. And who is the next opponent for Fernández.
“I’m going to do a show like I did tonight,” Fernandez said, “and we’ll see how it goes.”