Setting the entire circus aside for a bit...What a performance.
To me, what makes Naomi Osaka - excuse me, US Open champion(!) Naomi Osaka - so special is how much hard topspin she can put on the ball, particularly her forehand. Paul Annacone always likes to talk about "aggressive shots to conservative targets" and that's what Osaka does. In particular, she hit a forehand passing shot scrambling backwards into the deuce corner at 4-1, 0-15 that I gasped at and immediately thought, "Sloane Stephens is the only other woman on the planet who can hit that shot like that."
I wish tennis stats were more widely available, because I'd love to see Osaka's topspin rates. Part of what makes the big hitters on the WTA so erratic is that they can't get as much work on the ball and hit at a lower contact point than their ATP counterparts (who are often erratic in their own respects, to be clear).
When comfortable on court, Osaka isn't really like that. What was striking to watch against Serena was that Naomi never panicked or felt the need to start redlining. She just continued to hit repeatable, quality shots in a way that Alona Ostapenko (bit of a funky swing, and still only 21) or Madison Keys (who has commendably added a bit of variety but hasn't progressed in regards to shot margin the way many hoped she would) aren't capable of at this point against an opponent the caliber of Williams.
---
Speaking of big hitters, shout out to Aryna Sabalenka for being the one player to put Osaka in danger all tournament.
---
Naomi Osaka was already going to enter my GOAT list after this tournament, but with going all the way to the title, I've got her at #61 in the Open Era, right behind Ostapenko. Naomi has an edge with the Indian Wells title, but Alona has enough with the 2018 Wimbledon semi and 2017 quarterfinal, plus spending roughly a year in the Top 10, to stay in front for the time being.
---
I think an important thing to remember is that the coaching violation didn't cost Serena anything. If she hadn't spiked her racquet or continued to push the limit with Carlos Ramos, nothing would have progressed beyond a warning.
Whether she deserved the game penalty is already being fiercely debated, but what shouldn't be in question is that Williams definitely pushed the boundaries.
It was reminiscent of Draymond Green or Chris Paul in the NBA, guys who chew on the refs all night. When they eventually draw a technical foul, the thing that elicits the call may not even be that bad, it just often represents an accumulation to where the ref draws the line and says, "Enough."
What's particularly annoying about the whole situation is people using Ramos' actions to give Serena a free pass to do whatever because she was wronged. So often the "Did Team A win or did Team B lose?" nature of discussion obscures that more than one person can be in the wrong.
Also, surely more men have deserved penalties for on-court conduct. That need not be up for debate. But that means those players were wrong, not that Serena was right.
Chris Evert went as far as to say Serena wasn't given a chance to fight, which is ridiculous. Serena fought hard, went up in the second set, and Naomi fought back to take the lead. Serena wasn't defaulted. Osaka had to serve with what could have understandably been the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she calmly closed the match regardless.
---
As for the integrity issues Serena cited by noting she has a daughter and wants to set an example and all that, Patrick Mouratoglou's comments obviously made Serena's insistence harder to buy. Mouratoglou admits to doing this, defending it by noting all coaches do it. If Serena were staunchly against it, he'd be gone by now, or at worst, she will fire him after this tournament.
The more sensible takeaway, at least to me, is to accept that Serena, like many players, at minimum tolerates her coach sending messages, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Like athletes in other sports getting away with various rule-skirting behaviors when refs aren't looking, integrity points don't need to be docked for something that has been informally accepted by the players.
---
It does feel appropriate that this absolute ****-show of a tournament ends with a champion who the USTA declined to support beating Madison Keys, who is heavily connected to the USTA, and Serena Williams, the greatest American tennis player ever.
---
Finally, perhaps the biggest downer of the Serena-Ramos conflicts is anything is could take away from Osaka. That's a very common reflection to offer, but it's already kind of been forgotten that Osaka opened up about the difficult emotions she went through in the time between thriving in the American spring season and re-emerging happier on the court in the American summer season.
Between Serena's conduct, the grotesque crowd behavior during the trophy ceremony (which somehow found a way to top the 2015 men's final), and the ensuing media coverage, it would be one of the biggest shames in recent sports history if Naomi leaves New York negatively influenced by factors that she had absolutely no control over.
The good news is that among all the women who recently became Slam champs, Osaka is the safest bet to repeat the feat since Vika, save for *maybe* Garbine Muguruza. Hopefully her next one is a much more enjoyable experience.