MELBOURNE, Australia — Upset again in the third round by a young unseeded talent on the rise, Naomi Osaka was in a different mood and better place at this Grand Slam tournament.
In September, after her three-set loss to Leylah Fernandez at the U.S. Open, Osaka was downcast, confused and in need of an extended break from the game to rekindle her passion for tennis.
Late Friday night in Melbourne, after her three-set loss to Amanda Anisimova at the Australian Open, Osaka was disappointed but eager to see the bright side and look ahead to a full season.
“I fought for every point; I can’t be sad about that,” Osaka said. “You know, like I’m not God. I can’t win every match, you know. So I just have to take that into account and know that it would be nice to win the tournament, but that’s, like, really special.”
Osaka, 24, knows that feeling well. She has won four Grand Slam singles titles, two of them at the Australian Open and was the defending champion in Melbourne. But after nearly four months away from competition, she was seeded just 13th this year. Though she was unable to summon plenty of power and desire on Friday, she was unable to close the deal against Anisimova, a 20-year-old American who has long been considered one of the most promising players in the game.
In women’s tennis — brimming with depth and fearless youth — no established star is truly safe. The 60th-ranked Anisimova proved it again by matching the powerful Osaka groundstroke for groundstroke in Margaret Court Arena, with the crowd often chanting “Amanda” to urge her on.
It was her first match against Osaka, and Anisimova did not flinch: prevailing in three tense sets 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-5), and saving two match points on her serve in the final set.
“I think it was the hardest in the first set to be honest; I was just trying to step up my game, and I think that’s why my nerves were kicking in a little bit,” Anisimova said in an interview with The New York Times. “Because I knew that I had to really dig deep and just try to be more aggressive to give myself a chance to win today. But in the third set, I was not really nervous at all anymore. I love playing in these high-pressure moments, and I think it’s really fun to play in Melbourne in front of a crowd like that. So I was just trying to enjoy every moment really. I kept reminding myself, ‘I’m at a Grand Slam playing against Naomi Osaka, just try to enjoy it, because it’ll be over soon.’”
A semifinalist at the French Open at age 17 in 2019, Anisimova, the daughter of Russian immigrants to the United States, looked ready to play a leading role in the game consistently in her teens, but that was before her father and longtime coach, Konstantin, died after a heart attack in August 2019, shortly before the U.S. Open.
Anisimova withdrew from the tournament and returned to the tour later that year but has often struggled with her emotions and consistency in matches since then.
“I think definitely that’s the reason why I had a couple tough years playing tennis,” Anisimova said of her father’s death. “I think when I got back to it a couple months after what happened, I think I was…
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