This year the Australian Open provided us with a lot of wonderful tennis. Most of the people are still talking about Djokovic and Nadal as they are preparing to clash in the final tomorrow, but we should also pay attention to women's tennis which is becoming more and more attractive every single day. What used to be a random fest of breaks and emotions is now becoming a proper game with lots of powerful servers, defense, heavy hitting, and tactics.

Img Source

Naomi Osaka - New World's No.1

When Naomi Osaka won the US Open last September against Serena Williams, it became obvious that she was ready to take over the world of tennis. However, very few could expect that Osaka would do it so fast and get her second Grand Slam title in a row. And what's even more impressive, Naomi Osaka showed that she is resilient and mentally unbreakable today. To be honest, I think that most of the players would have lost the third set against Kvitova after missing 3 Championship points. On top of that, if we look back at the US Open against Serena Williams, Osaka when had to deal with fans booing, Serena fighting against the umpire, and all extra chaos.

Very few mature players would find a way to win 2 Grand Slams in a row under such pressure (facing Serena in the US Open is probably the ultimate test) and Naomi Osaka did that at the age of 21. That is pretty much unexplainable. In my eyes, she is the symbol of a new generation in women tennis. And I have a feeling that this generation will leave no chance to old players, Serena Williams included.

On top of all the hype, Naomi Osaka will become the world's no.1 on Monday. I have no idea if that lady has any limits but the future must look scary to all other girls on the tour. As for Petra Kvitova, she missed her chance to become the world's no.1 today but I guess we cannot blame her as Naomi Osaka played wonderfully and stayed cool when it mattered the most in the final set.

The Final

Both Kvitova and Osaka played well throughout the match and we witnessed some of the best heavy-hitting that you could expect from women. It seemed like Kvitova should break Naomi in the first set and steal it as she had 5 break points compared to Osaka's 1 until the 12th game. However, that's when Osaka stepped up a little and created 2 Set Points on Kvitova's serve. Sadly, for the Japanese fans, she failed to convert and the first set went to a tie-breaker. Naomi started the tie-break with a wonderful return, got an early lead and kept her dominance to win 7-2.

Petra Kvitova had her answers, though, and proved why she stayed the world's no.2 for many years (Serena Williams was dominating at that time so no.2 was the best you could ever expect) by getting an early break on Osaka and leading the second set 2-0. However, it was a girl from Japan that stole the show tonight as she lifted her game again, started hitting clean winners, chased Kvitova all around the court, and created herself 3 Championship Points at 5-3 40:0 on Kvitova's serve. We have seen one miracle in the Australian Open when Pliskova defeated Williams from 1-5 30:40 down in the third set but at the given situation, it was hard to expect Kvitova to pull something similar. And yet, she did. Being 3 Championship Points down, Kvitova won 18 of the upcoming 22 points, broke Osaka twice and won the second set 7-5. It was a shocker, to say the least, and it was obvious that Naomi Osaka felt devastated as she took some time off to regroup. I would not be surprised if she even cried at the locker room when she left after the second set. Kvitova went all in and it paid off. We were heading to the third set.

The third set was the greatest example of why Naomi Osaka is the best player in the world. It was also a huge test of Naomi's character. After all, the difference between a great player and the champion is the ability to play under pressure during the most important games of your career. I won't lie, I thought that Naomi Osaka was doomed, especially after the first game which Kvitova won to love. That's when something switched and Naomi Osaka got back to her previous self which won the US Open and brought her to the AO final. Osaka started making her shots again, broke Kvitova's serve and got the lead 4-2. That's when Osaka created herself 3 more break point opportunities and wasted all of them, allowing Kvitova to stay in the game 4-3. It seemed a lot like the second set when Naomi had a chance to close it all but failed. However, this time Naomi did not blink and served the upcoming 2 games to win the third set 6-4. It is hard to describe how much determination it took Osaka to pull it off because Kvitova was playing amazingly tonight and I am pretty sure that she would have won it against any other player on tour. However, this period belongs to Naomi Osaka.

What does the future hold

Women tennis is changing rapidly and is getting closer to men's. The one thing I observe the most is serving. Even a few years ago, it was very common to see at least 5-7 breaks on every set in women's tennis. Today, things changed rapidly and we rarely see more than 3 breaks per serve. It shows how much women invested in learning how to serve and adding power to their shots. Most of the young players, such as Sabalenka, Osaka, or even Anisimova, have unseen power and hit the ball harder than anyone could predict 10 years ago. It really feels like Naomi Osaka and other young girls will change the women tennis forever in the upcoming few years and will make it much more interesting to watch. On top of that, I believe that most of the women from the older generation will struggle on tour a lot as they are not used to hitting the ball hard and relies on defending (take Wozniacki for example). Those players won't have a chance to defend against likes of Naomi Osaka and I am not sure if they have enough energy to adapt to the new style and learn to hit the ball harder and faster.

What does it mean? I feel like in 5 years we will see a whole new top 10 in the tennis world as most of the older players will start losing their positions. In contrary, men tennis is quite different as Djokovic, Nadal, and other old wolves still keep up with the youngsters. I do think, though, that all these changes will be very good for women tennis because it will get so much more attractive to watch. I don't know about you, but I surely prefer to watch players overhitting each other with a lot of power rather than returning the ball and waiting for opponent's mistake. Some of the shots which are normal for Osaka today would have made to all the highlights 10 years ago. I am really excited about the future but for now, congratulations Naomi Osaka! You totally deserve this!

P.S. It is impossible not to love Osaka as she is so humble and funny of the court. I feel that she is something that women tennis was missing for a while now.

P.S.S. Kvitova must be proud of herself. After the tragic knife attack, she managed to get back to tennis and even claim a second spot in the world again. At some point, it wasn't obvious if she would even hold a racquet again. Many congratulations to her as well.