A few minutes after Naomi Osaka won the 2018 U.S. Open, ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi posed what usually would have been a softball question: “How does the reality differ from your dreams?”
Growing up, Osaka dreamed of playing her idol Serena Williams—beating her, of course—in a Grand Slam final, and on Saturday she upset Williams 6-2, 6-4 to win the U.S. Open, her first career major title. What the 20-year-old surely didn’t envision was the crowd booing during the trophy presentation after the match was marred by an escalating series of controversial umpiring decisions.
Osaka, the No. 20 seed, seemed torn—regretful, even—about her victory.