Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams were the protagonists of the previous slam at the US Open, but they didn’t really hit the headlines during the following Roland Garros.
Naomi decided not to play the French slam as she didn’t have enough time to recover from the hamstring injury suffered during her run in New York.
Serena also got injured to the Achilles in New York during the semifinal against Vika Azarenka. Still, the former world no.1 is notoriously more than eager to win yet another major to match Margaret Court’s 24 slams record. Therefore, the American legend decided to try to play the European slam. Williams went to the South of France to train and rehab with her long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou. Nevertheless, also for Serena, there was not enough time to recover and after winning the 1st round, she had to pull out from the 2nd match as she was even struggling to walk.
Rankings
Even if Naomi and Serena didn’t have the opportunity to shine in Paris, their rankings didn’t really suffer. Naomi remained world no.3 as Sofia Kenin didn’t manage to overcome Iga Swiatek in the final. Serena dropped just 1 place in the rankings after Kvitova reached the semifinal to be the new world no.8.
Naomi Osaka in 2020
Ranked world no.3, Naomi played her last match on the 12th of September when she beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6 6-3 6-3 in the final of the U.S. Open to win her 6th career title.
Currently, this year the Japanese has a 16-3 record. Osaka clinched 1 title at the U.S. Open. The Japanese got to the final in New York.
Serena Williams in 2020
Ranked world no.10, the American was supposed to play on the 30th of September. However, she conceded a walk over to Tsvetana Pironkova in the 2nd round of the French Open.
Presently, this year Serena Williams has a 17-5 match record. The American clinched 1 title in Auckland.
Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams played each other 3 times. The head to head is 2-1 for Osaka. The last time that they played each other, Serena Williams won 6-3 6-4 in the quarter in Toronto (Rogers Cup) in August 2019.
You can see them in action in the following highlights.
