Osaka eliminated Karolina Muchova, the No. 11 seed, in a one-hour and 45 minute exhibition of spectacular shotmaking by both women, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
“It was an incredibly difficult match, I’m just really grateful to be here,” Osaka, who is 27 years old and ranked No. 24, told the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium after the win. She’ll face Amanda Anisimova in Thursday night’s second semifinal.
Referring to the long break she took in 2023, she added, “I was sitting up there watching and hoping I can get the opportunity to play on this court again. This is like my dream is coming true.”
This outcome has been long in the making. Seven Grand Slam events and 18-plus months from the reset of her career in January of 2024, to be exact. It was not always a pleasant interval, because Osaka had expected to find her return to the elite level more swiftly.
“Since I’ve come back, I wanted everything to happen really quickly,” she said after her third-round win over Daria Kasatkina, “so I think it took for me to just completely not even think about results anymore, and just try to focus on every match.”
It’s like a video game. You pick it up, and even if you lose a level, you kind of just restart and keep going until you eventually win. Naomi Osaka, on returning to tennis
In truth, though, there seemed to be some ambivalence around the early days of her comeback, as if the prospect of going all-in and coming up short was too painful to contemplate. Osaka reached the Auckland final in her first appearance this year, then had two quality wins (one of them over Muchova) at the Australian Open. She had trouble getting traction, though, and largely remained outside the Top 50. She lost in the first round of Roland Garros and won just two matches at Wimbledon.
Osaka’s turnaround began in Washington D.C. in July. She was beaten in her second match by Emma Raducanu. She called a meeting of her team and, despite coming off a loss, told them, “I think I can beat anyone from the baseline still, even though I lost. We just have to figure out if I have to change my game plan, or if I just have to do something new and different.”
