Baseline Awards of 2019: Best late- season surge

When she captured the Australian Open at the beginning of the year for her second consecutive major, it appeared that Naomi Osaka was about to embark upon a season for the ages.

The Melbourne victory lifted her to the top of the WTA rankings and deservedly so as she was on a 14-match winning streak at the Grand Slam tournaments. However, what followed next on the court was a period of struggle that lasted for months.

The 22-year-old failed to defend her title at Indian Wells and then the injuries crept in. She did manage a couple of quarterfinal results on clay, but fell in the third round at the French Open. On grass, she lost at both tournaments she entered to Yulia Putintseva, with one of those defeats coming in the first round of Wimbledon.

During the summer hard-court season leading up to the US Open, Osaka didn’t win a title and her US Open defense came to an end at the hands of Belinda Bencic in the fourth round.

Osaka won her fifth career title in Beijing. (Getty Images)

There was still plenty of tennis left to be played on the season, though. And instead of eyeing the finish line on a year that had more than its share of highs and lows, Osaka showed why she was a two-time Grand Slam champion. As the top seed at the Pan Pacific Open—the site of her first career singles final—Osaka didn’t drop a set all week as she became the first Japanese player to win the tournament in more than two decades.

At her next event, the China Open in Beijing, Osaka breezed through her first three matches, then battled past three recent Grand Slam champions—Bianca Andreescu, Caroline Wozniacki and Ashleigh Barty—to take the title.

She established herself as a firm favorite for the WTA Finals title and got off to a strong start by defeating Petra Kvitova in her first round-robin match. However, she had to withdraw from the tournament afterward due to injury.

Still, her surge brought her up to No. 3 in the world, and if her late-season surge is any indication, a return to the top of the rankings could be in the cards.