The two big stories at this year’s Australian Open thus far? First, that the tournament happened at all—much less with an audience—but after some complicated quarantines, the tennis has gone off without a hitch. Well, one: After a COVID outbreak at one of the quarantine hotels, the crowds were banned from the stands for five days. They returned just in time to witness the big on-court story thus far: 10th-seeded Serena Williams—having fought her way to the semifinals, defeating second-seeded Simona Halep along the way—being rather handily dispatched by third-seeded Naomi Osaka, 6-3, 6-4. Williams seemed to put a little something extra into her on-court congratulations to Osaka, and later wept at the post-match press conference before quickly exiting the stage, fueling speculation by more than a few that this might be her final turn in Oz.
Clearly, that’ll be up to Williams: While Osaka’s victory might seem like a passing of the baton in retrospect, in real time, Williams, at least intermittently, appeared to be in it to win it, but her inability to pounce on Osaka’s rather shaky service game, combined with Osaka’s trifecta of superior movement, ridiculously angled shots, and a newly emergent mental calm and strength, all added up to a tidal wave with which Williams simply wasn’t able to contend.
Which brings us to tomorrow’s women’s final (3:30 am EST on ESPN for the hardest of core, or watch the rebroadcast at 8 am on ESPN2), in which Osaka, 23, will square off against American Jennifer Brady, seeded 22nd, who fought off 25th-seed Karolina Muchova in the other semifinal. With both players a bit nervous and tentative, each of them fighting to reach their first-ever Grand Slam final, it wasn’t the prettiest of matches—particularly coming as it did directly after the Williams-Osaka showdown—but Brady, 25, gutted out a tough three-set victory (including finishing an epic final game in which, at one point, she sunk to her knees beaming at her coaches, thinking she’d won, before one of them pointed out that her own shot had been called long).
Just because you likely haven’t heard much about Brady, though, doesn’t mean she isn’t bringing some serious experience to this match: She reached the quarters at last year’s US Open—before being defeated by none other than Naomi Osaka in three hard-fought sets in what was dubbed by many tennis writers the match of the season. She’s beaten Osaka before—but not recently, and not at a major.
Discussion about this post