Naomi Osaka says her Kobe Bryant jersey gave her 'strength' during US Open title run

Tom Gatto

Naomi Osaka says her Kobe Bryant jersey gave her 'strength' during US Open title run image

Naomi Osaka showed a champion's heart in coming back from a set down to win the 2020 U.S. Open women's singles title Saturday. She displayed a certain . . . mentality.

After Osaka had celebrated her victory over Victoria Azarenka, she returned to the Arthur Ashe Stadium court to take photos while holding the championship trophy. She came out wearing a Kobe Bryant No. 8 Lakers jersey.

Osaka said the jersey was a motivational tool as she grinded through two weeks of major-championship tennis under the Open's bubble. "I truly think it gave me strength," she wrote on Twitter. Her Twitter background image is a black-and-white photo of Bryant in his No. 24 jersey.

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A Twitter user responded with a photo of Osaka and Bryant, who watched Osaka play in last year's U.S. Open.

Osaka was shown wearing the jersey after her semifinal victory over Jennifer Brady on Thursday.

Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash last Jan. 26 in Southern California. The group was traveling to Gianna's AAU basketball game.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.