The US Open Women’s Championship on ESPN will feature two of the hardest hitting players on the women’s tour who are playing the best tennis of their career, #4 seed Naomi Osaka and unseeded Victoria Azarenka, Saturday, Sept. 12, at 4 p.m. ET.

The duo, each of them two-time Major champions, was to meet in the final of the previous event – the Western & Southern Open, also held in the USTA’s “bubble” in New York and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center instead of its usual home in Cincinnati.  However, Azarenka was declared the victor by walkover when Osaka pulled out because of an injured hamstring.  They have only played three times, with Osaka winning two matches on clay and Azarenka triumphing in a hard court match at the 2016 Australian Open.  Both defeated an American in the semifinal, with Osaka eliminating Jennifer Brady and Azarenka coming from a set down to oust 23-time Major champion Serena Williams.

• The unseeded Azarenka, 31, has been playing her best tennis since taking time off for maternity leave 2016-17 and arguably the best of her career. This is her first appearance in a Major championship in seven years.  She has two major titles – the 2012 and ’13 Australian Open – and in those two years was also a finalist at the US Open, falling both times to Serena Williams.  The 6’ right-hander from Belarus has 21 career titles overall and has been ranked No. 1 in the world.

• The #4 seed Osaka, 22, has only five career titles but two came at Majors – the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open. Following that win, she became the first Asian player to be ranked No. 1.  The 5’11” right-hander was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Haitian father and raised in New York and Florida. She garnered much praise last month for taking a stand against social injustice, bringing the tennis world to a halt for a day during the Western & Southern Open.

ESPN & the 2020 US Open

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