Osaka was just 20 when she became Japan’s first Grand Slam singles champion by beating Serena Williams 6-2 6-4 in a controversial U.S. Open final in September.

 She remained on course to add another Grand Slam title to her resume after blowing away Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday to set up a semifinal with Czech Karolina Pliskova in the year’s first Grand Slam.

“This is something that I have been working on a lot, which is trying to get deeper in tournaments more consistently. I think I have been able to do that,” Osaka told reporters.

“But for me right now, I just try to keep looking forward. So I’m not really satisfied — I am happy that I’m here, but at the same time I want to keep going. There are more matches to win.”

Osaka wrapped up her quarterfinal win in 1 hour and 12 minutes, becoming the first Japanese woman to reach the last four at the Australian Open since Kimiko Date in 1994.

The Australian Open was the first Grand Slam where Osaka got into the main draw through the qualifiers, doing so in 2016. While she knows she has progressed quickly she is far from satisfied.

“I already know that to be here is something that a lot of people want, and I know that a few months ago I would have given anything to be in the semifinals of a Slam,” she said.

“But it’s this weird feeling of you want to do the next big thing. And especially now that I won a Grand Slam, and I feel like I want to win another one, and I’m so close and I just want to keep going.”

Standing on the podium at the U.S. Open waiting to be handed her trophy after defeating Williams in a controversial final, Osaka heard only boos from an angry and frustrated crowd.

That prompted her to work more on the mental aspects of her game during the offseason.

“I feel right now most people know me for U.S. Open, right? And during (the) U.S. Open, I didn’t show any emotions most of the time,” said the No. 4 seed, who was born in Osaka but moved to the United States as a three-year-old.

“But then after that, I did show a lot of emotions. I got upset and then I threw my racket or stuff like that. I don’t really want to do that. I feel I play better when I’m calm.

“When I’m not calm, it just makes my life harder.

“. . . there is an inner peace I can tap into sometimes during my matches, and it’s kind of hard to get to but once I’m there it’s really easy. Not easy, but nothing can really bother me.

“So that’s just something I’m trying to learn how to do consistently.”

 

She was playing poorly. She yelled at herself. Slammed a ball. Tugged at her visor’s pink brim. Trudged to the locker room between sets with a towel draped over her head.

 And then, after returning to the court, Osaka turned it all around just as quickly as she had dropped 23 of 27 points. Regrouping and reasserting herself, Osaka edged Petra Kvitova 7-6 (7-2), 5-7, 6-4 on Saturday night to win the Australian Open for a second consecutive Grand Slam title.

Osaka fell to one knee in celebration, head bowed, as Melbourne Park erupted in thunderous cheers.

“I felt like I was in a state of shock through the entire trophy presentation,” the 21-year-old said.

Her gutsy performance confirms her status as the leading light of tennis’ new generation.

On top of that, Osaka will rise to No. 1 in the rankings, becoming the first Japanese woman to accomplish the feat.

Almost didn’t happen, though, against two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova.

Osaka held three match points in the second set at 5-3, love-40 as Kvitova served. But Osaka couldn’t close it out. Instead, she completely lost her way.

The never-say-die Kvitova forced a deciding set before Osaka finally edged ahead with a decisive break early in the third.

“Of course I felt very disappointed and sad when I had three match points,” she said.

“I tried to tell myself there’s nothing I can do about it. Told myself I’m playing a final and need to keep fighting and couldn’t act immature and needed to keep fighting.”

Her jubilation was a marked contrast to Osaka’s maiden Grand Slam win last year, when she tearfully hid her face as boos rang around Flushing Meadows in the wake of losing finalist Serena Williams’ tirade at the umpire.

This time, Osaka cried with joy and smiled as she became the youngest woman to win back-to-back majors since Martina Hingis in 1998 and the youngest No. 1 since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010.

That allowed Kvitova to come back and make a match of it, reeling off five games in a row to take the second set and go up 1-0 in the third.

Hard as it must have been, Osaka recovered. She also got her powerful shots going again. After Kvitova double-faulted to offer up a break point at 1-all, Osaka converted it with a cross-court backhand winner. There was still more work to be done, of course, and some additional drama when it began raining at the changeover right before Osaka tried to serve for the match at 5-4 in the third set.

This time, Osaka would not falter. She would not let this lead disappear. As a result, Osaka is the first woman to win two major championships in a row since Williams picked up four straight in 2014-15.

“I knew that Petra couldn’t keep it up for that long if Naomi could just manage those emotions,” said Osaka’s coach, Sascha Bajin, “and she did that beautifully.”

She was born in Japan — her mother is Japanese, her father is Haitian — and she moved to New York at age 3. Now she’s based in Florida and has dual citizenship. Osaka already was the first player representing Japan — female or male — to win a Grand Slam singles title. Now she also is the first to top the WTA or ATP rankings.

And to think, a year ago, Osaka was ranked 72nd.

What a climb. What a quick climb.

“Amazing achievement,” Kvitova said of Osaka. “Definitely she is a great one. We’ll see what the future will bring.”

Kvitova was playing in her first Grand Slam final since winning Wimbledon five years ago — and the first since she was stabbed in the hand by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic a little more than two years ago.

“You’ve been through so much,” Osaka told Kvitova during the trophy ceremony. “I’m really honored to have played you in the final of a Grand Slam.”

On a somewhat cloudy, rather comfortable evening, with only a slight breeze and the temperature around 25 C, both women hit the ball as hard as can be. Exchanges were mostly at the baseline and filled with flat, powerful groundstrokes that barely cleared the net and made retrieving and replying as much about reflexes as anything.

Here’s one measure of how even it was: Each finished with 33 winners.

Points were swift and blunt; of 86 in the first set, only four lasted nine strokes or more. There was plenty of strong serving, clean hitting and good movement.

It was Osaka who was the first to get ahead, tearing through the tiebreaker by grabbing five points in a row — four via winners — to go up 5-1. When Kvitova sailed a backhand wide moments later, ceding a set for the first time all tournament, Osaka pumped her fist and screamed, “Come on!”

How pivotal was that moment? Kvitova had won her last 22 Grand Slam matches after winning the first set. Osaka, meanwhile, entered the day having won 59 matches anywhere after going up by a set.

When Osaka broke to lead 3-2 in the second set, and then got to 5-3, the outcome seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Turned out, that wasn’t the case. Not at all.

After I switched on the TV for the fourth time, they were in the last set and 10 minutes later Osaka finally won the championship. When Kvitova failed to return Osaka’s powerful service, I first could not believe what had just happened and then I was convinced that her victory in the U.S. Open last year was by no means a fluke.

I felt something odd, if not wrong, about those media stories. Yes, Osaka was born in Japan but she and her family — a Haitian father, a Japanese mother and a sister — moved to New York when she was 3 and started playing tennis. Now living in Florida, Osaka holds dual U.S. and Japanese citizenship and calls America home.

How can multicultural Osaka represent Japan? It’s not because she had no other choice, but rather that her father wanted her to play for Japan for financial reasons. The Japan Tennis Association has reportedly offered more financial support than its U.S. counterpart. JTA seems to have made a critically important judgment.

I felt another odd feeling about the stereotypical comments on Osaka’s victory. Some expat pundits living in Japan frequently criticize xenophobia and discrimination in Japanese society. They claim that mixed-race Japanese nationals are unfairly treated and the Japanese government must change its xenophobic policies.

Having lived in Taiwan, the United States, Egypt, Iraq and China since 1976, however, I have a different view on the issues related to Japan’s “xenophobia.”

First, having served as a diplomat for 27 years in the Foreign Ministry, my conclusion is that discrimination and xenophobia are very human and quite common everywhere.

In the Middle East, for example, every nation, tribe, clan and individual discriminates against others. This is especially the case if you belong to a small minority in an area with big majority of different nations, tribes, clans or individuals. The most typical examples are the Jews and Christians in the region.

Dreams of an open and non-discriminatory Europe have recently been eroded and unhealthy nationalism, populism and xenophobic discrimination against Muslim immigrants from the other side of the Mediterranean are on the rise. Of course, the U.S. is no exception, either.

Second, Japan is learning lessons as well. Now it is rapidly becoming a multiracial and multicultural society, especially in some suburban areas — something that nobody had imagined would happen. With the amended immigration control law, up to 340,000 new non-Japanese workers are expected in the next five years to join the already 1.3 million strong foreign labor force.

In downtown Tokyo, for instance, Shin-Okubo is already a multi-ethnic town and pedestrians speak foreign languages such as Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic and Urdu, etc. A great majority of the residents in some housing complexes in the cities of Warabi and Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture are non-Japanese.

In those places, Japanese nationals are minorities, but they are learning lessons on how to get along well with foreign newcomers and are making progress. In Japan, and especially in rural areas, foreigners and biracial Japanese are not rare any more. Living with hundreds of thousands of Naomi Osakas in Japan is becoming a reality here.

Third, Osaka is very Japanese. She said after the match, “Huge congrats to Petra, I always wanted to play you. You’ve been through so much and I honestly wouldn’t want this to be our first match. You’re really amazing and I’m so honored to have played you.” Unlike in New York, she got very positive reaction in Melbourne.

A tennis journalist described Osaka’s “humility.” He wrote, “She bowed to Kvitova at the net … and she bowed to everyone who surrounded her during the ceremony. She’s the rare player who picks up her own plastic bags and water bottles on court and puts them in the trash, rather than having a ball kid do it for her.” This is a Japanese characteristic. I can tell the difference. Modesty, politeness, honesty and humility. These make Osaka truly represent Japan although she is still trying to become fluent in her mother’s native language. In the world of tennis, there have been many arrogant, selfish and assertive champions, but Osaka is different.

One 30-year-old expat in Australia criticized Osaka, saying “she does not speak well at all … a shame really, as most #1s are pretty well able to front the mic.” A tennis writer disagreed by saying, “Osaka shows that (power and speed) to be a champion, you don’t have to talk the talk, you just have to walk the walk.” I fully agree.

Fourth, I found one big dilemma for Japan. Japanese law requires Japanese citizens with more than one nationality to give the others up when they turn 22 years old. Will Osaka give up her U.S. citizenship? If not, Japan will lose one of the greatest Japanese tennis players. It’s time for Japan to allow dual citizenship.

Finally, the eternal question is “What is Japanese?” Unlike the United States, Japan is not a country of immigration and in this respect is similar to some European nations. “Japanese-ness” is not something you can artificially define. It is rather a transformational concept to be permanently defined by the Japanese in the years to come.

In the coming decade or two, we will have millions of people like Osaka who will enrich and evolve the Japanese nation. Let them play their role in our community and we must work together to refine and recreate the already multicultural nation of Japan.

Kuni Miyake is president of the Foreign Policy Institute and research director at Canon Institute for Global Studies.