Tennis
US OPEN: NAOMI OSAKA HARNESSES SPORT’S BIGGEST SPOTLIGHT IN FIGHT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
Naomi Osaka capped a transformative US Open with another Grand Slam title and a challenge to the millions watching across the globe on Saturday (Sept 12) to “start talking” about racial justice.
Striding into Arthur Ashe Stadium for her first-round match 12 days ago, Osaka put her activism front-and-centre from the start, wearing a mask to honour Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed by police officers who burst into her apartment in March.
Osaka would go on to recognise seven different black Americans – one for each of the seven rounds of the tournament – bringing the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality to her sport’s broad international fan base.
Asked after her final what message she hoped to send with her masks, she turned the question on her interviewer: “What was the message that you got?”
“The point is to make people start talking,” she added.
Osaka, who was born in Japan to a Haitian father and Japanese mother, spent her formative years in the United States and lives in Los Angeles. She represents her birth country in competition but her influence defies international borders.
“Everything that I was doing off the court was sort of on the court at the same time too,” she said in a televised interview after her 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Victoria Azarenka.
“It made me stronger because I felt like I have more desire to win because I want to show more names.”
One of the most recognised personalities in Japan, Osaka sent shockwaves through her sport before the tournament even began.
She forced the postponement of the Western and Southern Open semi-final late last month after opting out of the match in protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, as athletes in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) mounted similar boycotts.
“Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach,” she wrote on social media at the time.
Tennis pioneer Billie Jean King said the action put her in the pantheon of the greatest athlete activists.
“It has been more than 50 years since athletes like Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith and the Original 9 of women’s tennis all stood up and used their sport, their voices and their actions to change humanity,” she said.
“The baton has been passed and Naomi has accepted it.”
Her final mask of the US Open bore the name of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child who was holding a toy gun when a police officer shot and killed him in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2014.
She said she thought about wearing the mask for her trophy ceremony but was told not to don a face covering for the exchange.
Osaka, who has immersed herself in Haitian history as she forms her views on racial and social justice, said she would be interested in meeting with the families of the seven people who appeared on her masks during the tournament.
“I learn more through experiences,” she said. “For me, I feel like sharing stories and hearing people’s experiences is very valuable.”
-Reuters
Argentina’s 36-year-old Marco Trungelliti proved tennis dreams do not come with an expiration date when he became the oldest first-time tour-level finalist in the Open Era after beating the top seed at the Grand Prix Hassan II semi-finals in Marrakech on Saturday.
Trungelliti, who came through the tournament’s qualifiers, upset Italy’s defending champion Luciano Darderi 6-4 7-6(2) to break the previous record held by Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic, who reached his first final aged 34 years in 2015.
Darderi, ranked 19 in the world, was only six-years-old when Trungelliti turned pro in 2008. With the victory, Trungelliti secured just his second career top-20 win.
“Of course, I believed it, that’s one of the reasons that I’m here. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible,” Trungelliti said in the on-court interview.
“I’ve worked a lot, me and my team and also my wife, my kid. We all believed in breaking the record basically and that’s exactly what we have done now.”
The milestone caps a remarkable journey for Trungelliti, who made his first ATP Tour semi-final in 2018 in Umag, Croatia – 402 weeks ago.
Having entered the tournament ranked 117 in the world, Trungelliti’s breakthrough week has already guaranteed he will crack the top 100 for the first time. He is currently ranked number 75 in the live rankings.
“It’s been happening the whole week, leaving the court with a victory,” added Trungelliti, who has dropped only one set at the tournament. “So hopefully (there) is one more to go.”
He will face Rafael Jodar on Sunday after the Spaniard prevented an all-Argentine final with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Camilo Ugo Carabelli.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has been listed as eligible to return to tennis by the sport’s drug-testing body (ITIA) as of February 22, though it remains unclear whether the 23-time Grand Slam champion will make a stunning comeback to the women’s tour.
The 44-year-old raised eyebrows late last year after rejoining the tennis anti-doping testing pool, though she denied at the time the move signalled she was preparing to return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
She reignited speculation last month when she deflected questions about a possible return during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show.
The Women’s Tennis Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open.
-Reuters
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Serena Williams has re-entered the tennis anti-doping testing pool but the 23-times Grand Slam champion denied on Tuesday that the move had anything to do with her making a return to the sport she dominated for nearly two decades.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed to Reuters that Williams, who has not competed since the 2022 U.S. Open, was among the list of players in its testing pool, which requires individuals to provide their whereabouts at any given time, every day, and participate in random testing
But as the story of 44-year-old Williams’ inclusion on the list, first reported earlier on Tuesday by The Athletic, gained traction and sparked talk about her potential return, the tennis great took to social media to deny a comeback was in her plans.
“Omg yall I’m NOT coming back. This wildfire is crazy,” Williams wrote on X.
Her agent did not immediately respond to an email from Reuters asking why the player had re-entered the testing pool.
Williams’ name appears on the ITIA website’s list of retired players and would be able to return to a sanctioned event after making herself available for out-of-competition testing for at least six months.
Last week former world number one Williams posted a series of photos on Instagram showing herself on a tennis court with her youngest daughter, Adira River, whom she gave birth to in August 2023.
In August 2022, ahead of her final U.S. Open, Williams announced in a Vogue article that she was “evolving away from tennis.”
Williams, who won her last Grand Slam singles title in 2017, had been chasing an elusive 24th crown that would have drawn her level with Australian Margaret Court, who holds the record.
The American came tantalisingly close to achieving that feat, featuring in four major finals since giving birth to her first daughter, Olympia, in 2017.
-Reuters
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