MELBOURNE, Australia — For Naomi Osaka, this journey to the other side of the world is starting to become a rollercoaster ride for the ages.

The new year had all started so right, with a run to the final in Auckland, New Zealand. But then, a set up and with her first tournament title since becoming a mother in sight, she had to pull out against Clara Tauson with an injury.

The scans were “not great” in her words, a suboptimal development just a few days before the start of the Australian Open.

A few days later, the fires in Los Angeles arrived. The flames came within a few blocks of her home. She called a friend and asked her to collect her daughter’s birth certificate.

Monday night in Melbourne, back at her favorite Grand Slam, brought a tight, hard-fought win over Caroline Garcia of France, who had knocked her out in the first round here last year. Osaka had been up, then down, then somehow up at the end.

Then came Wednesday afternoon against Karolina Muchova, a microcosm of the whole journey, and another sweet ending.

Just when Osaka’s second or perhaps third tennis act looked set to take another frustrating and all-too familiar turn, she stormed back to beat Muchova, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 in her biggest win since she became a mother in the summer of 2023. It means she will play her first third-round match at a Grand Slam since the 2022 Australian Open.

Muchova, the No. 20 seed in Melbourne, is an ascendant and gifted star who rose when Osaka was on the sidelines. She has the kind of all-court game that has become increasingly vital at the top of women’s tennis. Osaka, with her power baseline attack, hadn’t been able to solve it. At the U.S. Open in August, Muchova sliced and volleyed Osaka onto the next flight home from New York.

“She crushed me when I had my best outfit ever,” Osaka said on court. “She’s one of the best players out there.”

Osaka appears to have plenty going for her a year and a half on from giving birth to her daughter, Shai. A new and accomplished coach sitting courtside, in Patrick Moratoglou. A new dose of confidence from her first appearance in a final in nearly two years, and then Monday’s win over Garcia. The fist pumps and slaps of the left thigh between points have fresh vigour. She has shown flashes of her past self as a four-time Grand Slam champion in flickering moments, but now she has the luminous quality of a player honed for the present and for what is to come.

“With every match, she’s better,” Muchova said of Osaka.

“She’s played great matches here in Australia. I played even better at the start. I didn’t let her play the game. Then it switched.”

On day four of the first major of 2025, Osaka struggled to find answers for Muchova’s all-court attack from the start. She was down 5-0 after about 20 minutes, despite getting her chances to break Muchova’s serve in a couple of games. The set was gone after half an hour.

When the set ended, Osaka told herself to believe. In her best years, she had a distinct superpower. She played her best tennis at the most crucial moment. She always seemed to come up with a huge serve down the T, a torrid forehand within inches of the baseline or a backhand screeching down the sideline when she needed them most.

That has mostly been missing during the 13 months of this comeback. For stretches she has seemed like she can hang with the best players of this new, post-Serena Williams era. Then the big moment comes, and she can’t.

Osaka said after her first match that she has struggled with losing her focus during matches. She is not a confrontational person, she said, but her job is to fight other people, like a boxer but without the punching.

“It takes a lot of energy for me to know that I’m going to go fight against somebody,” she said.

“For me, that’s what my focus is. Obviously once it’s there, like, I say c’mon a lot and I’m yelling. It’s almost like I’m a different person. Up until it gets to that point, I overthink a little bit.

The fires have only made focusing more challenging.

“I’m not there, so I don’t know how bad it is or how bad it’s going to get,” she said.

For long enough on Wednesday afternoon, she was able to clear her mind and rediscover that essential superpower. She knew the score was ugly but she told herself she’d been just a few points away from making it close.

“I told myself, ‘Okay, you’re kind of on your way out, but you’re going to try to put your foot in the door,’” she said.

“I told myself to just swing, because that’s my game. I can’t be hesitant and allow her to push me around the court. I also tried to think that way with my serve, as well.”

Osaka got her teeth into the match early in the second set, lacing a series of deep, down-the-line backhands that sent Muchova sideways and backwards while finding the kind of groove on her first serve that sends every player’s spirits rising.

Naomi Osaka roared again and again on Wednesday in Melbourne. (Hannah Peters / Getty Images)

The power kept Muchova in the back of the court, unable to float forward and stick point-ending volleys as she does better than anyone in the game. Here was Osaka, the bully of old, sending her opponent scrambling every which way, stretching for serves, overmatched and unable to breathe.

Onto the third set they went. Now it was Muchova’s turn to try to lift her game to Osaka’s level, or maybe a click higher. She couldn’t.

Osaka got the decisive break points in the fifth game with a one-two punch from the title-winning years: a ripped cross-court forehand and then a backhand pass down the line. On the crucial point, she produced a deep backhand that Muchova could only block back wide.

Four games later, Osaka once more bullied her way to three match points. Muchova blasted away return winners to save two of them, but on the third Osaka dug the ball out with a looping lob that floated — perhaps with a little bit of fortune — onto the baseline. Muchova tried an over-her-head lob that went wide and Osaka bounced with joy.

The win gave her just what she was looking for. She has said she wants to play more this year than she did in 2024, but she also isn’t going to hang around if, as she put it earlier in her comeback, the results aren’t resulting. Belinda Bencic, another player returning to the WTA Tour after giving birth, is next.

“I have a lot of respect for all the players on tour, but the point of my life that I’m at right now, if I’m not above a certain ranking, I don’t see myself playing for a while,” she told reporters during the ASB Classic.

“I’d rather spend time with my daughter if I’m not where I think I should be and where I feel like I can be.”

Last year Osaka’s goal was to climb back into the top 20, or at the very least, the top 32, so she would be seeded at Grand Slams and not have to face the top players in the early rounds. She finished last year at No. 58, well below both goals, and she had to cut short her season after retiring from the China Open when locked at 1-1 against Coco Gauff.

She started this season strong, and could have looked at her time in the Australian summer as progress even if she had lost to Muchova again. Osaka was better than Garcia, who was playing her first match after a three-month mental health break. She wasn’t better than her here a year ago.

Muchova is as talented as anyone, able to beat any top player on any given day. There would have been no shame in losing to her after a run of horrible draws at Grand Slams, including a rising Emma Navarro at Wimbledon and Iga Swiatek at the French Open.

But there is the old Bill Parcells line that basically every athlete who grows up in America is well familiar with. According to the former New York Giants coach, “you are what your record says you are.”

She’s been nearly unbeatable since the start of the season. That’s what her record says she is.

(Top photo: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake / Associated Press)

Ohio State has looked dominant throughout the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff. 

After knocking out the top-seeded Oregon Ducks in the quarterfinals, the Buckeyes defeated the Texas Longhorns in the semifinal to advance to Monday’s championship game. But one member of the Buckeyes, who rose to prominence largely due to his social media presence, will not make the trip to Atlanta for the national title game. 

Caden Davis, a former walk-on, has been dismissed from the team, Ohio State Sports Information Director Jerry Emig confirmed to The Lantern.  

The sophomore defensive end never recorded a tackle during his brief stint as an Ohio State student-athlete. Davis has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across popular social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

University officials did not immediately provide details on what led to Davis’ dismissal.

(David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire/File)

At times, Davis’ online content would provide followers with behind-the-scenes content of the Ohio State football team and athletic facilities. He would also document his life as a student on the Columbus, Ohio, campus.

As of Wednesday, at least one of Davis’ social media bios read, “Ohio State football #61,” while other accounts feature references to the football program.

An Ohio State football helmet (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images/File)

In a since-deleted Instagram post, Davis suggested he was traveling to the Dallas area with the Buckeyes for the semifinal matchup with Texas in the Cotton Bowl. It was later determined that the photos Davis shared were from last season’s Cotton Bowl game. Missouri defeated Ohio State in that game.  

Ohio State last hoisted the national championship trophy in 2014, which was the inaugural College Football Playoff Championship.

Notre Dame punched its ticket to the national title game by defeating the Georgia Bulldogs in the quarterfinals before eliminating Penn State in the semifinal. The championship game kicks off at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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A light blue poster with the words “We’re Here for You” between a drawing of two Dolphins hung on the wall of the Fairfax High gym Wednesday afternoon. Another sign read: “Let’s go Pali!”

Fairfax teams are nicknamed the Lions, but on this day home fans were rooting almost as hard for the visitors.

Despite playing on the opponents’ floor, something it will have to get used to for the time being, the Palisades High girls basketball team saw its first action since a fire ripped through the Pacific Palisades community eight days earlier.

The Dolphins won big, 75-42, but their real victory was suiting up.

Ayla Teegardin, a junior wing on the varsity team, lost her home in the fire but was anxious to get back on the court as soon as possible. She won the opening tip, scored five points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out four assists and had two steals while Riley Oku led the way with 17 points for Palisades (7-6, 2-0 in Western League).

“The first day we had a gym to practice in I was there,” said Teegardin, who is staying with her family at a hotel in Marina del Rey. “Basketball helps me get through the hard things in my life. It’s a way I can cope.”

Head coach Adam Levine shared that in addition to Teegardin, three frosh/soph players and three JV players also lost their homes.

“Every parent said this is the best news of the week,” said Levine, who has been flooded with calls and texts from coaches offering donations, equipment and gym time. “We were off Monday, so yesterday was the first day back and Brentwood School let us use their gym for practice. The girls couldn’t wait to play.”

Athletic director Rocky Montz was at Wednesday’s game and credited Principal Dr. Pam Magee for “putting the press on” to get winter sports teams playing as soon as possible.

The boys basketball squad resumes its schedule Thursday at LACES (preceded by the girls), plays Hamilton at Pierce College on Friday night and plays Oxnard at El Camino Real High in Woodland Hills on Saturday. Jeff Bryant’s team (9-5) has practiced the last three days at Westside Neighborhood School in Los Angeles.

Though the Palisades campus is off limits, the baseball and football fields are in good shape and neither the gym nor the pool appear to have suffered significant damage.

“As of right now we’ll be doing online learning for at least the next few weeks,” Montz said. “I’m not allowed on campus, but from pictures I’ve seen on-campus facilities look pretty good. We were dealt a bad hand but we’ll handle it the best we can. For league games, we’ll play some doubleheaders [boys and girls] and others will be separate depending on what alternative sites we can find. Soccer starts back up next week and if we have to play games on the road we will. As far as water polo, we’re looking at Loyola Marymount, Samo High and SMC or possibly the YMCA pool near University High. As for the spring season, which begins in three weeks, Cheviot Hills Pony Baseball and Venice Little League have offered help so we’re considering all possible options.”

Even the wrestling team has found a place to practice, a Brazilian jiu jitsu studio in West L.A. Indeed, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

“Safety is the most important thing, but we need a home to come back to,” Montz added. “There are issues we need to be taken care of and just how much time that takes I don’t know yet.”