Naomi Osaka received plenty of encouragement and advice from her mother Tamaki after her second round victory at the US Open on Wednesday, although it came in the form of emojis printed on a sheet of paper.
Shortly after defeating Italian Camila Giorgi 6-1, 6-2, 2018 champion Osaka was led to a courtside big screen to take a video call from her mother in Florida, which momentarily caught the 22-year-old off guard.
What followed was a slightly awkward exchange between mother and daughter amid audio connection issues, before Tamaki held up a sheet of paper with her message.
“I wasn’t expecting it (the call) to happen. It was a surprise. Apparently my sister told my mom to do it,” Osaka told reporters, before deciphering her mother’s message.
“There were four lines. Thumbs up fire, which is like ‘good job’. There was like a Twitter bird, whatever. She was saying ‘don’t go on social media, get some sleep’. Then ‘drink a lot of green juice, get some rest’. And ‘I love you’.”
“... It was kind of a tech issue because normally I’m able to talk to her quite soundly. It would be kind of bad if all our conversations ended up like that. Definitely was a tech issue.”
Karolina Muchova had also interacted with a special guest immediately after beating Venus Williams on Tuesday, after connecting virtually with actress Rebel Wilson.
“It was a bit odd because I remember I was watching Muchova playing Venus, and then I saw that she got a call... from Rebel Wilson. I was like, ‘Oh that’s kind of cool’,” Osaka added.
“Yeah, definitely wasn’t expecting my mom to call today.”

Osaka brings protest to international audience
Earlier, Osaka stepped into the Arthur Ashe Stadium wearing a mask that read ‘Elijah McClain’ ahead of her second-round victory, harnessing tennis’s global appeal in her fight for racial justice.
The 22-year-old’s mask honoured McClain, the 23-year-old Black man who died after a violent encounter with Aurora, Colorado, police officers in 2019.
“I think tennis — people watch it all around the world,” she said in a televised interview after her match. “Things that we think (are) common names (are) probably not common overseas.”
She had previously worn a mask honouring Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by police officers who burst into her apartment in March, at her first-round match on Monday, and said she had seven different masks with her at the tournament.
“When I heard about his story it was very hurtful,” Osaka later told reporters, when asked about McClain. In a lawsuit filed last month against the city of Aurora and its police, McClain’s family alleged he was tackled by police officers during an encounter despite presenting no physical threat.
“I still don’t think his name is very put out there compared to, like, George Floyd or Breonna Taylor. For me, today was very special in the way that I wanted to represent him very well,” she said.
The fourth-seeded Osaka, who has seen her platform grow with her success on the court, sent shockwaves through her sport when she announced last week that she would forego her Western & Southern Open semi-final in protest of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States.
“I feel like the platform I have right now is something I used to take for granted,” she said.