Naomi Osaka survives roller-coaster night to reach fourth round of US Open

This was veering toward a sadly familiar story for Naomi Osaka.Straight toward a meltdown, straight toward questions about how she could have thrown away a match that seemed so winnable, in which she seemed in such control.Her body language was in the dumps, her game was riddled with errors and the wrong kind of emotion.

She took a medical timeout in the third set, down a break, and you could see the end coming.And then Osaka picked herself up off the mat.She regained her composure, she won 10 straight points, she took control of the match and, suddenly, she was marching on into the round of 16.

It took just about everything she had, but Osaka made it past Elise Mertens 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in their third-round U.S.Open match, overcoming herself as much as anything else.“Honestly, I can’t believe I won this match,” Osaka said in an on-court interview afterward.

“… I felt like I put my entire heart on the court.And then I just kept trying every single point and you guys [the crowd] were cheering me on, so thank you so much.“I’m literally shocked that I won this match.

I’m not even gonna lie to you.”After Osaka dominated the first set, Mertens seized control early in the second following a break of Osaka’s serve that seemed to undo her.After that break, which tied the set at 2-2, Osaka could be heard on the broadcast saying, “I’m f–king slowing down,” afterward.That turned out to be accurate.She started making unforced errors and her mentality seemed to deteriorate.

After Mertens broke her at 2-2 in the third, Osaka spent the changeover with a towel covering her face.When she hit a ball into the net down 3-2, she let out a scream, seemingly at herself.

“I was really negative on myself, so I’m really sorry about my behavior,” Osaka said on the court.“For all the little kids watching, I’m really sorry, but this is my favorite tournament, so I really wanted to play well.”At one point, she took Advil, and later in the third set, too...