Champion, in more ways than one
Naomi Osaka beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final
Osaka, 22, became the first woman since 1994 final to come back from a set down to win title
For the first time since 1980, both semifinals as well as the final were decided in three sets
Osaka became the first woman to win her first three Grand Slam finals since Jennifer Capriati
Azarenka, 31, was playing in the final for the first time since 2013
This was the third US Open final defeat for the two-time Australian Open winner.
Naomi Osaka capped a transformative US Open with another Grand Slam title and a challenge to the millions watching across the globe on Saturday 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 recognize 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 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 US 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 on the court at the same time," she said after her three-sets 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 recognized personalities in Japan, Osaka sent shockwaves through her sport before the tournament even began.
She forced the postponement of the Western & Southern Open semifinal late last month after opting out in protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. Athletes in the NBA and WNBA mounted similar boycotts.
"Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is 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 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.
"I learn more through experiences," she said. "For me, I feel like sharing stories and hearing people's experiences is very valuable."
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