Naomi Osaka achieved what has not been done by a player since 2012 – add a fourth career Grand Slam title to their name.
Naomi Osaka, on Saturday, beat Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 at the Australian Open doing what was expected of her – win a Major final as the pre-match favourite.
Both these statements, in the context of recent women’s tennis history, are significant.
The first shows rare consistency in the women’s game where glorious uncertainty has thrived over the last few years. The second subverts an emerging pattern in women’s Grand Slam finals where the popular favourite, by conventional metrics such as past experience and pedigree, has eventually faltered.
Osaka is now on a 21-match winning streak, winning her second straight Grand Slam after the US Open in 2020 (she skipped French Open). Osaka is the first woman since Monica Seles to win her first four Major finals. The statistics after this win are plenty and impressive: only the fourth active woman to win…