Despite all the parallels — and there are plenty — Naomi Osaka’s coach, Sascha Bajin, insists that he and Osaka hardly ever talk about Serena Williams.
“No, no, no,” he said very late on Thursday night as we spoke on the edge of the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium. “We focus on other stuff. We joke about other stuff.”
Bajin, a tall, lean German who was Williams’s hitting partner for eight years, then paused for effect and grinned.
“But obviously, tomorrow we might talk a little bit more about her,” he said.
That is because the career paths of Osaka and Williams are about to cross at the summit on Saturday in the United States Open final.