As the biggest stars in tennis gathered last night inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, the spirit of another sporting legend was top of mind. Naomi Osaka and Nick Kyrgios both paid tribute to the late basketball star Kobe Bryant as they wore his iconic Los Angeles Lakers jerseys on court for the inaugural US Open Mixed Madness event.
Both players were close with the five-time NBA champion throughout his life. He mentored both Osaka the athlete and Osaka the person, and she once described him in a media interview as the uncle or brother she never had. A day after Bryant died in a helicopter crash in 2020, Krygios, who played basketball in his teens and is an avid fan of the Boston Celtics, donned one of his jerseys to enter Rod Laver Arena for an Australian Open match against Rafael Nadal.
“I never met Kobe but basketball’s practically my life, I watch it every day and I’ve been following it for as long as I remember," Kyrgios said then, saying that he was motivated by all that Bryant "stood for."
"I can never imitate what Kobe did, but there maybe [are] times in my life when I try."
Competing alongside Amanda Anisimova and Taylor Fritz, Paula Badosa and Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in the innovative US Open Fan Week mixed doubles exhibition, Kyrgios looked the part: He wore the Lakers' yellow colorway, while Osaka donned the black version. On the front was the number 8, which Bryant wore to start his career, and on the back was 24, the number he wore in his later years.
"Naomi’s the captain of the team so she gave the orders for me to wear this and I just had to follow suit," Kyrgios later said—even though Osaka interjected to joke that the Aussie as the "fashionista" between the two.
"I guess it was a group decision," she quipped.
But Kyrgios and Osaka's reunion in the competition was brief. They lost to Anisimova and Fritz in the semifinals, 6-2
While Kyrgios is not competing at the US Open this year, two-time women's singles champion Osaka will feature in the main draw for the first time as a mother, after giving birth to her daughter Shai last summer.
The former world No. 1 returned for her first practice session on Monday, writing on social media she was so happy to touch the New York courts again that "[she] could cry," and that sentiment flowed from her on Tuesday night as well.
“It feels really good for me, very nostalgic, and [I'm] just really grateful that I’m able to play on this court again," she said.
