Cape Town - US Open women’s champion Naomi Osaka made headlines when she appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres show on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old became the first Japanese-born Grand Slam champion when she beat American Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the US Open final last weekend.
The match was however blighted after Williams lost her cool on the court when she was given a code violation for on-court coaching.
Williams received two further code violations - for slamming her racquet and calling umpire Carlos Ramos a thief - which eventually saw her docked a game.
At the post-match ceremony, there was loud booing from the partisan New York crowd and Osaka revealed on the show what Williams had told her on the podium: “She said that she was proud of me and that I should know that the crowd wasn’t booing at me. At the time, I did ... think that they were booing at me. I couldn’t tell what was going on, because it was just so loud in there. It was a little bit stressful.”
Later in the interview, DeGeneres asked Osaka to reveal her celebrity crush, to which Osaka replied: “Black Panther” star Michael B. Jordan.
DeGeneres then took a selfie with the tennis star and texted it to Jordan on the air. Jordan then replied with a video message.
WATCH in the video below:
.@Naomi_Osaka_ won the #USOpen, and all she got was this selfie with me. And 3.8 million dollars. pic.twitter.com/fwf1cNaF4j
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) September 12, 2018
.@Naomi_Osaka_ won the #USOpen. Now she has her eyes set on @MichaelB4Jordan. pic.twitter.com/kSoqNzZvgZ
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) September 12, 2018
Ok. It’s time for me to leave this planet. Embarrassment level has reached critical stage #liftoff ?????? https://t.co/NWqQILePVs
— NaomiOsaka????? (@Naomi_Osaka_) September 12, 2018
