Naomi Osaka’s Australian Open Victory Shatters the Status Quo

For the past half decade, women’s tennis has been a paragon of parity, with one glaring exception. Twelve different women have won at least one grand-slam title since 2014; one of them, Serena Williams, has collected six in that time frame. There, in a nutshell, is the recent history of the sport: a handful of excellent players (Angelique Kerber, Garbiñe Muguruza) and one world-annihilating supernova (Williams) consistently vying for the top prizes.

But Naomi Osaka’s steely 7–6 (2), 5–7, 6–4 defeat of Petra Kvitová in the 2019 Australian Open final on Saturday portends an irreparable break from the status quo. The women’s tour will remain replete with exceptional players, many of whom, like Kvitová, have the talent to contend for grand slams. But Osaka’s victory, her second straight grand-slam title, confirms her status as a bona fide superstar capable of rivaling Williams’s preeminence. (Osaka beat Williams in the final of last year’s U.S. Open, and .) Women’s tennis is now a two-headed monster with Osaka set to take over the No. 1 ranking, Williams unlikely to fade away, and the rest of a still lurking.