2018 US OPEN: Osaka Wins 1st Major Title, Serena Receives Controversial Penalties (Again)

In a stunning upset, 20-year-old Naomi Osaka defeated 36-year-old Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open final, 6-2 6-4 to win her first major title. Osaka became the first Japanese player to win a major title in 200 major tournaments played in the Open area. For the second consecutive grand slam,  the 23-time major champion lost in the final, which drops her record to a still-intimidating 23-8 record in major finals for her career.

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON

Osaka was simply the better player for most of the match, clearly able to play her best tennis despite her nerves which was not the case for Serena. Both players began their first service games with 0-30 holes but were then able to come through and hold serve. However in the very next game Serena fell behind on her serve and lost it on a double fault. For some reason, Serena's service percentage was well below 50% (approximately 38%) while Osaka's was around double this number and at least as fast. Despite starting at 30-0, Serena lost her service again at 1-3 and only at 5-1 down was Serena finally able to hold service again but then lost the first set 6-2. In the second set Serena was more focused, but this ended when she was awarded a code violation after the umpire Carlos Ramos claimed her coach Patrick Mouratoglou was trying to coach her from the stands by indicating Serena should approach the net. Serena broke serve and went up 3-1 but after she gave back the break Serena destroyed her racket and received a second code violation, which resulted in a point penalty. Serena continued arguing with the umpire and on the 3-4 changeover she said to Ramos "You stole a point from me, You're a thief!" he gave her a 3rd code violation which resulted in a game penalty, so instead of Osaka serving, Serena was forced to serve at 3-5. She was able to hold serve and then Osaka served out the 10th game and won the championship 6-2 6-4.

TENNIS TUESDAY: Serena Ready To Play Stanford, Tiafoe Loses In ATP Debut

Serena Williams is scheduled to return to the WTA Tour today, almost 4 weeks after she was last seen on a tennis court barely able to hit a tennis ball during her ill-fated doubles match with sister Venus at Wimbledon.

Serena has been spending time in Croatia with her hitting partner Sasha and doing some training as well as enjoying herself on vacation.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Serena has not stopped working with her coach Patrick Moutaoglou and even though she pulled out of the Swedish Open (on clay) she is fulfilling her commitment to the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, which the World #1 won in 2012 over fellow American Coco Vandeweghe the reigning champion.

Sister Venus, Angelique Kerber, Agnieska Radwanska and former World #1 Vika Azarenka are also in the draw.

On the other side of the country future American #1 Francis Tiafoe made his ATP Tour debut at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. in front of his hometown crowd and although he won his first ever professional point with an ace, he lost the match 4-6 4-6 to Evgeny Donskoy.

Tiafoe is just 16 years old, but it one of the top
juniors in the world, having won the two most important junior tournaments in the world (the prestigious Orange Bowl and the Easter Bowl) in the same season. The last American to do that was named John McEnroe, and he turned out pretty well as a pro.

Tiafoe is under extreme scrutiny as America hungers for a male player with the ability to win majors and dominate the game as the Williams sisters have on the women's side. So far that pressure has not helped Tiafoe's results but realistically he is at least 4 to 5 years before he will be making any kind of significant impact on the men's tour.