Australian Open 2019: Fairytale Finale in Women’s Singles
In December 2016, an intruder broke into two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova’s home, and knifed her. The attack left all five fingers of her playing hand wounded, as well as several damaged tendons and two damaged nerves.
It took nearly four hours of surgery to save her hand. No one was sure if she’d hold a racquet again.
Five months later, Kvitova was back on the court. Two years later, she’ll play at the Rod Laver arena, a contender for the title of Australian Open champion.
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Naomi Osaka isn’t the first notable Japanese name in tennis. Kei Nishikori has been around for a while now (he reached the quarters this year). Kimiko Date achieved a career-best ranking of World No. 4. Ichiya Kumagae was the first Japanese Olympic medallist. But Osaka is the first- and so far, only- Japanese Grand Slam champion. And she beat the best player in history to get there. Her defeat of Serena Williams at last year’s US Open final was overshadowed by the latter’s distasteful fight with the chair umpire, but Osaka’s brilliant performance remains untarnished by her subsequent run of success, reminiscent of Williams’ own at the highest points of her career.
And Osaka’s all of 20. There are going to be many, many such runs for her, if recent history is any indication.
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A year ago, neither Kvitova nor Osaka would have dreamt of being here. They’d have been thinking of the next match, the next point. But here they are, and may the best woman script her fairytale. Either way, it’s a great story.
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