Rolling out caught up with international tennis star Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam and two-time U.S. Open champion, to reflect on the unforgettable moment when the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant watched her play from her player’s box at the 2019 U.S. Open.
“I mean, I guess I sort of played on the same court today,” Osaka responded when asked about Bryant’s visit five years ago. She had worn a double-sided Kobe Bryant jersey that day with 8 on the front and 24 on the back during an exhibition doubles match last week and at yesterday’s press conference after her first-round upset win over #10 Jeļena Ostapenko, 6-3, 6-2.
“Louis Armstrong [Stadium] was the court he came and watched my match,” the athlete, entrepreneur and mom of one recalled. “I honestly remember being a little bit in disbelief that he was coming specifically to watch my match. Just to feel that support was unreal. I think for me I always wear Kobe jerseys after matches and practices because I feel like a little bit, like, I can kind of keep his spirit with me.”
Rolling out wrote about Bryant’s U.S. Open visit five years ago.
“It’s just funny to me,” Osaka said at that time, when she was 21. “You know, like, last year compared to this year, there is no way, like, Kobe would sit in my box. Yeah, Kaepernick, too. It’s just crazy who you run into in life.”
After winning her first grand slam title by defeating Serena Williams at the 2018 U.S. Open at the age of 20 — then winning the Australian Open to begin 2019 — Osaka was an international star by the summer of 2019 and had a relationship with Bryant.
“Everybody knows Kobe gives me real-life advice,” she said five years ago. “He’s someone I look up to as an athlete and also as a person. I’m really grateful that I even have the opportunity to, like, talk to him and stuff.”
Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others tragically died less than five months later on Jan. 26, 2020, in a California helicopter crash.
Osaka will play Karolína Muchová in her second-round U.S. Open match Aug. 29.
