Williams, 36, will be trying to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles titles. Osaka will be aiming to duplicate a win this spring over Williams and claim her first Grand Slam title.
For a brief moment, Serena Williams almost cracked. It did not happen during her semifinal match on Thursday against Anastasija Sevastova. There was little chance of that.
It came after her dominating 6-3,6-0 victory, in an on-court interview, when the magnitude of her yearlong journey — from the of joy of giving birth to the fear of life-threatening postnatal complications and ultimately to the demanding path back to tennis success — crystallized in her mind.
She fought back the tears, but there was no hiding her sentiments after she had reached her first Open final in four years.
“I got a little emotional out there because last year I was literally fighting for my life in the hospital,” she said. “I think I was on my fourth surgery by now. What is today? I was on my third surgery. I had one more to go still.
“To come from that, in the hospital bed, not being able to move and walk and do anything. Now only a year later, I’m not training, but I’m actually in these finals, in two in a row,” she said, referring also to her advance to the Wimbledon final. “Like I said, this is the beginning. I’m not there yet. I’m on the climb still.”
[ Read our magazine story on Naomi Osaka’s breakthrough moment]
Williams gave birth to a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, in a cesarean delivery during last year’s Open, and then endured multiple operations needed to address the complications. She came back on tour in March, reached the Wimbledon final in July, and now this.
“Honestly,” she said, “it is remarkable. I couldn’t have predicted this at all.”
What she probably could have predicted is that her next opponent would be someone who revered Williams and wanted to be like her one day, because so many players on tour identify Williams as their hero and inspiration.
One such player is Naomi Osaka, the rising star from Japan whose overwhelming desire was to play Williams in the final. That is exactly what Osaka, the No. 20 seed, said in her on-court interview after she had beaten No. 14 Madison Keys (another Williams admirer), 6-2,6-4, in their semifinal under the roof in Ashe Stadium.
Osaka said that when she was successfully serving to save all 13 of Keys’s break points, including six in a 22-point game in the second set, she kept telling herself how much she wanted to play Williams. She got her wish and will face the 17th-seeded Williams in a compelling matchup in the women’s final on Saturday, when she will become the first woman born in Japan to play in a Grand Slam singles final.
After Osaka revealed her inner thoughts during those critical moments against Keys, she told her mother, watching from the team box, that she loved her. Then Osaka was asked if she had anything to say to Williams.
“I love you,” she said, bursting into nervous laughter.
Later Osaka recalled that as a child she often dreamed about playing Williams in a Grand Slam final. But as reverent as Osaka seemed, she also gave a hint about her own competitive fire when she was asked how those dream matches turned out.
“I don’t dream to lose,” she replied.
Osaka, 20, was born on Oct. 16,1997, seven months after Williams, now 36, started her first season on the WTA tour. Osaka’s youthful comments, wry sense of humor and power game have endeared her to tennis crowds around the world, but Williams is not likely to be so smitten. She may even have revenge on her mind.
In their only meeting, Osaka beat Williams in Miami five months ago, in Williams’s second tournament back after missing more than a year because of maternity leave.. At that time, Williams was rusty, out of shape and still trying to find her footing.
“I lost to Naomi last time we played, but I definitely wasn’t at my best,” she said.
Williams is still not there yet, she said, but even with so much to play for, she feels she has nothing to lose.
Williams already has six Open titles, tied with Chris Evert for the most in the Open era, and her next major title will give her 24, matching Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles titles.
Because of all her success, Williams has long been a role model for players like Osaka, but also for many non-athletes — women, African-Americans and others who have been inspired by her example. Now, she has taken up the cause of working mothers, too.
Her last match before going on maternity leave was the 2017 Australian Open final, which she won for her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, the most of anyone in the Open era. Williams’s results since she came back have been uneven, with some quick exits at a few tournaments, including her first-round loss to Osaka in Miami.
But she has increasingly found her footing and has delivered a dominating performance at the Open, marching into the final while dropping only one set and serving notice that she is back in top-flight form.
“I just feel like there’s a lot of growth to still go in my game,” Williams said. “That’s actually the most exciting part.”
It is also welcome news to her legion of fans, many of whom filled Ashe Stadium on Thursday with a buzz of overwhelming support. With the roof closed for both matches because of rain, the buzz was louder than it has been all tournament, and it was almost all in Williams’s favor.
As she walked to the baseline to serve for the first time, the audience backed her with a loud roar. She fixed her hair, bounced the ball four times, served and then swatted a forehand long. The crowd, which expressed barely any interest in Sevastova, a 28-year-old from Latvia, fell silent.
But soon enough, Williams steadied herself and, in a surprising twist to demonstrate her versatility and movement, came to the net 28 times and won 24 of those points, improving her remarkable record in Grand Slam singles semifinals to 31-5.
Her last two losses at the semifinal stage came at the Open. In 2015, she was stunned by Roberta Vinci, who thwarted Williams’s hopes of winning all four major titles in the same year. She then lost to Karolina Pliskova in the 2016 semifinals.
But after four years, Williams is finally back in a United States Open final, and as she told the fans after her latest victory, she is just beginning.
