Naomi Osaka has advanced to the next round after securing her first U.S. Open victory since returning to the competitive sport.

According to Us Weekly, the tennis star defeated Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday. She expressed how meaningful it was to return to the court in front of her fans and home state in an emotional response.

“I was trying not to cry when I was walking out,” Osaka, 26, told reporters following the match. “Last year I was watching Coco [Gauff] play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again. I didn’t know if I could … just to play this match and just to be in this atmosphere means so much to me.”

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, took a year off after welcoming her daughter, Shai, with her boyfriend, rapper Cordae, in July 2023, Blavity reported. At the time, she vowed to return to tennis, and her recent win demonstrated her readiness to re-enter the sport.

“I grew up here, so just seeing kids, and then remembering my daughter, but seeing kids coming and watching me play and just remembering that I was a kid … [it] made me very emotional,” she said, per Us Weekly. “Just seeing the stadium really full, it meant a lot, because I was, like, ‘Oh, I hope people come watch me play.”

NPR reported that this is Osaka’s first top-10 victory in four years. Ranked No. 88 in singles, she credited her confidence for helping her defeat the No. 10 seed, Ostapenko.

“I would say I made a promise to myself to be as confident as I can in the fact that I am who I am,” she explained. “I feel like for me, throughout the year, I’ve had really hard matches and it kind of dipped my confidence a little, and I wouldn’t say that I played bad tennis. I just would say that I played really good players and I also learned a lot.”

Naomi Osaka