Osaka, defending champ, brings relaxed demeanor to U.S. Open

Naomi Osaka knows it hasn’t been the best few months. There was the loss at the Australian Open and the one at the Olympics, and withdrawing from the French Open and Wimbledon, and then there was the fact that she hadn’t made it to a quarterfinal since early April.

But though that’s not the best way to come into the U.S. Open, Osaka was not only unfazed at Open media day Friday, she was fully self-assured. Yes, there’s the fairly tough draw, which projects her to face either Angelique Kerber, Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens or Madison Keys in the Round of 16. But Osaka is home, in the place where she won two U.S. Opens, and a few short miles away from the Jamaica courts she grew up playing on.

"I feel pretty happy with how I’m playing," Osaka said. "I feel pretty confident with where I am right now. Of course, I’m not declaring that I’ll do amazing here. For me, I’m the one-match-at-a-time like person. Yeah, hopefully it will work out in the end."

It certainly did last year, when Osaka was playing with a purpose — and played all the way to first place. She wore seven different masks for all seven rounds of the tournament, each one imprinted by the name of a Black person who was killed — a statement on racial injustice in America. She credits that message with giving her the drive to win. This year, the purpose is murkier.

"I’m the type of player that plays better if I have a reason or if I have a goal or if I’m driven about something," she said. "In New York last year, the biggest goal for me was just to push that message across. I feel like I did well there. Right now, I don’t really have that big of a message to push across at all. So, it’s going to be really interesting to see, like, what drives me. Of course, I’m a competitor and I want to win. There’s that feeling of wanting to do better than last year."

This year, she kicks off her tournament in a first-round match with unranked Marie Bouzková of Czech Republic.

One wrinkle is that, unlike last year, when there were no fans in attendance, she could have in the upwards of 20,000 sets of eyes watching her at once — an aspect of the game she hasn’t historically always felt comfortable with. The U.S. Open will be at full fan capacity with no masking restrictions in any of the stadiums.

"It will definitely feel a bit different," she said. "I kind of had to get over the feeling of people’s gazes feeling a bit different to me. At the same time, I started to tell myself that it is what it is. I did what I did, so I can’t really change people’s perception of me. It might make me feel a little bit nervous. But first rounds always make me feel a little nervous. Maybe I can just attribute it to that. I guess I’ll find out when I’m in that situation."

It could very well help that plenty of fans will be on the side of the hometown product. Just Thursday, Osaka was back in Jamaica, Queens, conducting a tennis clinic for kids. And for months, she’s been working with BodyArmor redesigning and refurbishing courts.

"I would say the most awesome part about it is that all of the people that I remembered from when I was a kid were still there," she said. "They all came out. They were all telling me to call my mom and call my dad because they had so many things they wanted to tell them. Honestly, it felt like a big family. Everyone there used to take care of me as a kid. Just to see them all being healthy and happy was an incredible feeling."

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.