NAOMI OSAKA VS JENNIFER BRADY
Writing this now, I guess it should not be such a big suprise that Osaka is in the final of the Open as even though she was not the number 1 or 2 seed at the beginning of the tournament, she still had all of the momentum from her wins last year. For some reason it still feels a bit of a suprise that she made it all the way through to the final given that nothing was really certain this year due to quarantine arrangements, start of the season, lack of much match play lately for most players, plus all of the upsets which have happened along the way this year…
Osaka really showed she is the real deal once again when she had a stern test against Serena who was trying to reach another Grand Slam final and equal Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam titles record. Osaka stumbled for the first few games, but then checked herself and her game and reduced the unforced errors and took it to Serena. Ultimately Serena ended up making lots of unforced errors, but it must be said that the pressure of Osaka was a big part of this and even if Serena was playing her best, one would think that Osaka still would have won.
Jennifer Brady is the first American College Tennis player into the final of a Grand Slam in over 25 years. To see her in her on court interview when she said she couldn’t feel her feet, and see the excitement and happiness on her face, made all of us forget we are still in the middle of a pandemic. Her carefree attitude while answering questions makes her very likeable and a relatable for a lot of fans who follow her. Brady is currently 25 years of age and 1.78 metres tall.
It’s hard to believe that at the end of 2018 Brady was ranked outside the worlds top 100 players given her meteoric rise to the top of the game right now. The change from being a good player, and where she is right now was due to when she left Florida in 2019 and went to Europe ( Germany) and trained there with a new coach and changed her mindset. In 2020 she was in the worlds top 50 and won her first WTA title. She reached the 2020 US Open Semi final and perhaps played the match of the tournament when she lost to Osaka in three sets. Osaka even said that the match was ” probably in the top two matches I’ve played in my life”. Osaka leads the head to head 2 – 1, but who knows how this final will finish up.
Osaka has the big match play experience… but Brady is hitting the ball really well and has a heck of a lot of belief behind her…. can’t wait to see how this one plays out!