It took one day for a scheduling snafu to hit the Australian Open with defending champion Aryna Sabalenka playing on a near empty Rod Laver Arena after midnight on Sunday night.
But another controversial reshuffle at Melbourne Park in 2018 arguably accelerated Naomi Osaka’s progression to becoming a champion and came at a cost to local star Ash Barty.
It is now six years since Osaka, who returns to grand slam tennis on Rod Laver Arena on Monday night in a clash against Carolina Garcia, clashed with the Queenslander in the third round of the Australian Open.
The pair were yet to achieve greatness, but so clear was their potential to become stars of the sport, they were due to meet on Rod Laver Arena until a marathon match in the middle of the day saw them bounced from the main court.
It may not have ultimately made a difference but there was a view among Australian personnel, though not Barty or her inner circle, that the shift was a factor in her loss.
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The match was played on Margaret Court Arena but Barty, who was at Melbourne Park for a trophy ceremony on Sunday night, was not as familiar on the court as she was on RLA, where a packed audience had been waiting to cheer the Australian on.
A new book on Osaka titled Her journey to finding her Voice and her Power by American journalist Ben Rothenberg touches on that match while considering the broader importance of Australia to the Japanese star, who plays Caroline Garcia in her first round match.
“I remember Barty had a great quote before that match,” Rothenberg said.
“I think in a classic sort of Aussie style, I think she called Naomi … ‘a great chick who can certainly give it a rip’. Which we absolutely loved. It was a classic Aussie line. Classic Barty.
“They were going to be on Laver … but I believe (Hyeon) Chung beat (Alexander) Zverev and that match went extra long.
“Margaret Court was full, but it maybe was not as daunting as what Rod Laver would have been for a Barty match. And Naomi played great. She stepped up and took it to Barty.”
The victory meant Osaka progressed to the second week of a major for the first time and, given the clear confidence boost, proved a significant step on the way to greatness.
A couple of months later she won Indian Wells. That September she defeated Serena Williams in a controversial US Open final in which Osaka clearly outplayed the legend to win her first major title.
Rejuvinated Osaka ready for return | 01:03
But it is in Australia, where Osaka was the champion in 2019 and 2021, that the right-hander has played arguably her finest tennis.
Her triumph in 2021, which is her most recent major title, was particularly emphatic.
Aside from a significant scare against dual-grand slam champion Garbine Muguruza, with Osaka forced to save match points, the Japanese superstar was scarcely troubled in any other match during that Australian Open, including a semi-final against Williams.
“She said to her team that the best tennis she ever played was in 2021 in Australia. That was the peak of her career,” Rothenberg told foxsports.com.au.
“There is a pop music phrase for it that the Pet Shop Boys said once … that ‘every single you put out is a hit. You are cranking it out and in your groove’.
“For Naomi, that was in that stretch. She faded after that, but at the time, she came down here thinking she was going to win and she won and executed it so well.”
Rothenberg believes her convincing 6-3 6-4 triumph over Williams in the semi-final sparked thoughts in the American legend that she might no longer be able to match the best on the world’s biggest stages.
“There was all this baggage linked to having played her for the last time in a grand slam at the US Open and she was clinical. It wasn’t that close. It really was very decisive,” he said.
“We see Sabrina being panicked that she couldn’t do more to challenge Naomi, who was not even having her best day. It was just that the gap was so big between them at that point in their careers.
“I think that is the match that Serena thinks maybe ended her career. She waved to the crowd on the way out of the court because Naomi was so good, it was that comprehensive.”
Rothenberg believes it is a shame Osaka and Barty did not play more regularly given the former’s hard court supremacy and the Australian’s superb all-court excellence.
“It is a shame they did not play each other more, because from the 2019 Australian Open, which Osaka won and got to No. 1, for a stretch of four years, three or four years, the only No. 1s were Osaka and Barty,” he said.
“They traded (the ranking) back and forth. That was the only grand slam match they had, but it was one of those ‘What could that rivalry have been?’ moments for women’s tennis.
“It could have been a fascinating rivalry given they had different playing styles, different personalities. It could have been a really great thing. It was a lost rivalry.”
