Naomi Osaka beats Victoria Azarenka to claim second US Open title

Naomi Osaka, a tennis star from Japan, on Saturday night defeated Victoria Azarenka, her Belarusian counterpart, to claim her second US Open women’s final.

The 22-year-old athlete came from a set down to beat Azarenka in a three set of 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to also claim her third Grand Slam title.

Osaka battled through five deuces to break and level her game before cracking four winners in the decisive game, including on her second point.

The Japanese star was +11 on the winners-to-unforced-errors count in set two (16 to 5) after being -8 (5 to 13) in the opener.

Azarenka was, however, +4 in both sets, doubling her winner count to 14 in a losing effort in set two.

Osaka now has 11 wins in a row and continued her run of winning a Grand Slam in each of the last three years at the age of 22.

Saturday’s match-up was a repeat of last month’s Western & Southern Open final that never was, after Osaka withdrew due to a left hamstring that she had tweaked in the semi-final of the precursor to the second major of the season.

Prior to that, the Japanese fourth seed had won their previous two meetings on clay, but Azarenka won their first meeting four years ago on the Grand Slam stage at the Australian Open.

The final of the US Open, which took place behind closed doors at the Arthur Ashe stadium, Flushing Meadows in New York, saw a three-set women’s singles final for the first time since 2016.

Osaka, who took home the $3 million in prize for winning the US Open, said: “I want to congratulate Vika. I don’t want to play you in many more finals as it was a really tough match for me. To have the opportunity to play you in the final was great.”