She was losing and exhausted and her only hope was to delay play and physically regroup, change the momentum of Osaka and use the crowd to get behind her, which she does all the time.
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As one of the announcers for the match said, Naomi was playing Serena AND the crowd. I thought Naomi showed great maturity, self-control, and composure during the entire match as the crowd cheered every Serena point, then booed the ref/USTA/whoever as Serena blew up. Naomi beat the cr@p out of Serena from the get-go .... not the “desired outcome”, but a really sweet win for those of us who are sick half to death of Serena and all the talk of her ‘comeback’, her being a mom, her greatness, Serena Serena Serena ad nauseam. I have a relative who played college tennis, is currently a teaching pro, has been a hitting partner for some names you might recognize on the WTA & also does some tournaments so I really like watching matches, but not the Williams sisters.
I also have family members participating in higher levels of tennis for many years. They knew what was happening. It’s hard to teach younger players self control when the pros act like this.