In the press conference following her semifinal win over Venus Williams, Daria Kasatkina was distracted. Repeatedly she would fumble with her phone and eventually called out “Four zero!” in disbelief. While Kasatkina was in the interview room, Naomi Osaka was on Center Court making quick work of her semifinal. She had already taken the first set 6-3 and was up in the second. After a few more questions and as she was being ushered out of the room by a handler, Kasatkina let out a “five zero!” yelp and shook her head. Minutes later, Naomi Osaka defeated world number one Simona Halep in an astounding 6-3, 6-0.

Both players are only 20 years old and this marks the first time either one will play in a Premier Mandatory final.

Road to the Final

Naomi Osaka, ranked number 44 in the world, roared into the tournament with a win over Maria Sharapova in the first round. Next, she took out Agnieszka Radwanska. From there, Osaka defeated Sachia Vickery, Maria Sakkari, and Karolina Pliskova to play Simona Halep for a spot in the final.

In the semifinal, Osaka stunned Halep with a 6-3, 6-0 victory that only lasted one hour and three minutes. Speaking with press, Halep gave credit to her opponent and said, “I didn't feel the ball at all. I couldn't concentrate. I was out of the game today… I just was not ready, and I played wrong.”

Osaka, known and adored among tennis fans for her struggles to stay fully focused at times, was fully conscious of how essential concentration was to her success: “I didn't want to look too much on the other side of the court, because I felt then I would lose my focus.” Still, she confessed that it was difficult to focus when she was blowing through the second set: “when I was playing the match, I was thinking, Okay, when I win, I'm going to throw my racquet and just be super happy. But then I was thinking I didn't want to think that while I was playing, because then, if I started losing, I would get extremely angry.”

Osaka is looking forward to playing the final against Kasatkina. “I feel like it's going to be really interesting, because she kind of plays a completely different game than me, and I think we're both in the final of this type of tournament for the first time. So, it's going to be fun.” This will be the first meeting between the two.

Kasatkina entered the tournament as the 20th seed, receiving a bye in the first round. In her first match, she played Katerina Siniakova. Next, she took out reigning US Open champion, Sloane Stephens. After that, she defeated Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki. Following those major victories, she went on to beat Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams.

After the 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 defeat, Venus Williams did not provide much more analysis than the numbers show. “She just played a little better at the end. It was really pretty much that simple… I really just make too many errors. That's pretty much all – I mean, I have to stop making that many errors against her.”

Kasatkina was elated in her press conferences following the win. “Match like this, you're just speechless. Even when I met my coach and my brother after the match, I was not able to say anything.” The young Russian takes nothing for granted: “Sometimes I was even smiling on the court. In one moment you just catch yourself, like, you're in night session, all crowd, you're playing against a legend, and you are in the third set, for example. And you're just staying on the return, and you're like, Come on, maybe it's the moment of your life.”

Looking toward the final, Kasatkina expressed great respect for her opponent: “she's playing really well. She's hitting hard. She has a good serve. She’s improving so much, so she's really dangerous player.” Osaka spent a total of 8:05 hours on the court, compared to 8:05 hours for Kasatkina at this tournament. Each has only dropped one set en route to the finals.

When a reporter asked Kasatkina the significance of having two 20-year-olds in the final, her answer was blunt and prophetic:                                                                                                                                         

“[It means] that we are coming. Very soon.”