It was a coming of age moment and now the reigning US Open champion is poised to propel women's tennis into the age of Osaka, says Hall of Famer and Tennis Channel analyst Lindsay Davenport.
Simona Halep of Romania hits a return in women's singles match against Ashleigh Barty of Australia in the "A Day at the Drive" exhibition tennis tournament in Adelaide, January 29, 2021.
Davenport joins fellow Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova and Paul Annacone, who coached Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, as lead analysts for TC's live match coverage starting Monday, February 8, at 7 p.m.
The 23-year-old has been the poster girl of the 2020 Olympics and still hopes to represent Japan at her home Games. "I assume she will".
"We only want her to play if she is ready to go and she's happy".
"I have a great team around me and I would like to thank them for their unwavering support through what has been a hard year for everyone".
Winning the accolade on Monday (Feb 1) with nearly three times as many votes as the runner-up, the 37-year-old Malaysian said she hoped the award would help to boost the profile of a sport seemingly unloved in key quarters. Japanese COVID infections in particular have reached a record high.
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"For me Olympic Games are very important ... it's like a fifth Grand Slam".
"Honestly I don't feel that way", Osaka said.
"For me the people that I've spoken to, they're really excited about it, but they're concerned because, I don't know, there's just like so many different people entering". "I missed out on the last one and playing in Tokyo would be very special to me", she added.
"It's a huge honour to be nominated and to gain so much support from everyone in Malaysia and the squash community", she said. The other athletes always came to us and watched us and supported us ...
"Given her independence, given her (desire) to take over her own career, we don't see the overbearing parents in her case, we don't see the unhappiness", Davenport said.
She claimed gold at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and won both global championships she contested in 2019 - the European Indoors in Glasgow and the World Championships in Qatar, where she posted a national record points total of 6981 on her way to victory.
"Understandably this is not the start to the year I was hoping for but I'm pleased to be able to share this off the back of a positive few weeks".
