naomi osaka of japan defeated serena williams of the u.s. 6-2, 6-4 on saturday to win the us open women's singles championship at the billie jean national tennis center in new york city. osaka claimed her first career major singles title, and is now ranked #7 in the world.
osaka, 20, is a charming, humble and shy young woman. she was in tears after defeating her childhood idol. "when i was growing up, i did a whole report on her in the third grade. i colored it and everything. i said, i want to be like her," osaka remarked afterwards.
osaka holds dual citizenship. her father is haitian and her mother is japanese. her father introduced her to tennis as a child. he also modeled her athletic journey, ironically, after richard williams - the eccentric, yet visionary father of serena.
osaka was dominant at the us open. she dropped one set, and lost 34 games. in the final, osaka had six aces, saved five of six break points, broke serena four times and made just 14 unforced errors. in the second set, williams endured a warning, point penalty and game penalty - resulting in major controversy - but osaka thoroughly outplayed serena and earned the biggest win of her life.
novak djokovic of serbia defeated juan martin del potro of argentina 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 on sunday at the billie jean king national tennis center in new york city to win the us open men's singles championship. djokovic ties pete sampras with 14 career major singles titles, which is third most in men's history.
"i was hoping he was going to be here, but he's not...he's my idol. pete, i love you" djokovic said about sampras. djokovic was also gracious in honoring del potro, a longtime friend and 2009 us open champion whom, like djokovic, suffered major injuries on the comeback trail. "i believe he'll be here again with the championship trophy, i really do," said djokovic.
djokovic, a former #1 player, sat out the second half of 2017 due to elbow pain which plagued him for more than a year. "when i had the surgery in my elbow earlier this year, i could truly understand what juan martin was going through. difficult times, but you learn through adversity. i try to take the best out of myself in those moments," remarked djokovic.
djokovic, 31, won his second consecutive major title. he defeated kevin anderson of south africa to win his fourth career wimbledon title in july. djokovic also has six australian open titles, three us open titles and one french open title. additionally, he became the only male to win nine atp titles, after his straight-set win over roger federer at the western and southern open in cincinnati.
i am
- mark j. tuggle
- harlem, usa
- same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment