Between logo and mask (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

It had taken seven years for Viktoria Asaranka to reach another final at the US Open. In 2013, as in the previous year, when she even served to win the match (in vain), she failed because of her career-long nemesis Serena Williams.

Asaranka’s last title with a major was more than seven and a half years ago. She beat Li Na in the final of the 2013 Australian Open and was booed loudly by the Melbourne crowd after a bizarre match that included a concussion from Li Na at the lowest point.

Asaranka is probably no longer a hatred figure like when she was first in the world rankings, she has hardly been relevant enough at the top of women’s tennis in recent years. In 2016 she made a short comeback by winning the “Sunshine Double” – the successive prestigious tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami – which was then interrupted by her pregnancy and the birth of her child.

For years, she had to fight custody disputes with the child’s father, which were accompanied by – for a tennis professional, a professional death sentence, so to speak – considerable travel restrictions. Injuries and athletic misery seemed to have condemned her to a career fall in mediocrity.

Before the global corona quarantine break, she played a single match this season. She lost in the first round of the tournament in Monterrey in March with 2: 6, 2: 6 against the Slovenian Tamara Zidansek. The start after resumption of play in the short US quarantine hard court season failed her. She lost her first match 3: 6, 2: 6 against Venus Williams.

But then she began a winning streak of twelve matches in New York, which brought her her first tournament victory since 2016 and which should lead her to the final of this US Open. In fact, it is one of the peculiarities of Asaranka’s career that her great successes repeatedly come in bundles in long series of victories before she then disappears again almost completely for a certain time.

In the semifinals she even overcame her rival Serena Williams, who started that match almost flawlessly, regularly hit 200 km / h and did what she wanted in the return games with Asaranka’s service. Williams won the first set 6: 1 and had a break ball to 2: 0 in the second, hit her backhand return into the net. At the time, nobody would have thought that this would practically be Williams’s last chance to win this match. Asaranka made her serve and dominated the game from that point on. The 39 year old Williams was visibly exasperated and tired. Asaranka, who previously had a 9-0 record against Williams in the majors (and 4:18 overall), won this match 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 3. She ended it as an exclamation point with an ace and was in the final of the US Open for the third time in her career.

There she met Naomi Osaka, who had prevailed in the semifinals in one of the best matches of the tournament against the 28-seeded winner of the tournament in Lexington Jennifer Brady 7: 6, 3: 6, 6: 3.

Actually, the two should have met in the final of the Western & Southern Open, which was shipped from Cincinnati to New York at short notice, but Osaka canceled this final due to a thigh injury. In fact, she played heavily bandaged for the two weeks of the US Open. There was no noticeable impairment of their movement or their very dominant serve.

The main thing about Osaka’s demeanor was on her quarantine mask anyway. Seven names for the total of seven matches: Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile. All seven African American victims of relevant police violence.

Osaka’s appearance in New York was – like the USTA tournaments this summer – under the sign of »Black Lives Matter«. As early as the semifinals at the Western & Southern Open, Osaka initially failed, following the example of the short-term strikes in the other North American professional leagues, only to then compete after the boycott day, to win against Anett Kontaveit in three sets and then again to participate in the This time the final was not to be canceled out of protest, but ostensibly injured. Osaka is probably the first player in history who has managed to officially cancel two individual matches in a WTA tournament.

“Black Lives Matter” was literally the facade of this US Open, the logo was always visible on the otherwise ghostly spectatorless Arthur Ashe Stadium, and Osaka was the right placeholder and consequent tournament winner.

It didn’t look like it at first. Asaranka, 31, started the final as if it were all about her life. She served first service in the field with an incredible 94 percent rate and dominated the game mainly with her forehand along the line. In other words, Asaranka turned the two biggest weaknesses of her game – the serve and her technically poor, often more pushed than struck forehand – into her strengths.

She played sensationally and led quickly and safely 6: 1, 2: 0, 40:30. The turning point of the match: Osaka hit a forehand strike to debut. Then Asaranka committed two forced forehand errors in a row. Osaka managed the rebreak in the second set and dominated the match from that point on. Not only did she get rid of her apparent nervousness, she also made the necessary tactical changes, played the line more often instead of engaging in cross-court duels, and slightly reduced her service speed in favor of better placement. In short, she avoided being surprised and countered. Asaranka, on the other hand, could not keep up her outstanding service statistics from the first set. From that point on, statistically speaking, she had no chance. Osaka won 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 3 and thus their second US Open after 2018. Since 2018 she has not lost a three-set match at majors. On a medium-fast hard court – and the courses at this quarantine US Open were surprisingly fast again for the first time in decades – it currently seems hardly defeatable.

Since today (Monday) the traditional tournament in Rome has already started the subsequent submission of the European clay court season, which will have its climax next week with the French Open. Neither Osaka nor Asaranka will be among the favorites there. They both have pretty lousy career stats on the sand. Osaka, currently the world’s highest earning female athlete, is not yet 23 years old and still has room for improvement.