Tracee Ellis Ross never shies away from championing other women on her Instagram profile. On Sunday, the multi-talented star gave a shout out to 20-year old Naomi Osaka, who defeated Serena Williams in the U.S. Open on Saturday.
As previously reported by Inquisitr , the match between Williams and Osaka was extremely contentious. Williams got into several heated arguments with chair umpire Carlos Ramos, and the tennis powerhouse ended up with 3 code violations and a $17,000 fine. Williams ultimately lost the match 6-2, 6-4 to Osaka. Many athletes and sports analysts have stepped up to support Williams, stating that her treatment by the umpire is a case of sexism and double standards around women athletes and their behavior.
As reported by the New York Times , after the match, Williams and Osaka both cried as the crowd jeered during the awards ceremony. Williams comforted Osaka and asked fans to stop booing, hugging the young champion in a wonderful display of solidarity.
Ross shared a photo of Osaka, which features the young tennis star with her curly hair combed out into a fluffy brown and blonde halo around her head. Osaka wears a white tank top and a white visor and stares into the camera.
Ross captioned the photo, “NAOMI OSAKA // you made history last night. you played a beautiful game. there is a 7 layer dip of very real historical stuff around it, but another brown person (Haitian) and the first Japanese person ever won the @usopen and made history last night @naomiosakatennis.”
Fans responded positively to the encouraging message from Ross. The post received over 210,000 likes and 1,500 comments in the first four hours after it was posted.
One user commented, “Thanks for acknowledging her @traceeellisross she deserves this as the spotlight was taken from her she’s played really well, there’s room for everyone!”
Another fan wrote, “Love to watch Serena play…..she does leave it ALL out there but I’m also looking forward to watching these up and coming players like Osaka, Keys, Stevens. Osaka brought her A game last night, so I applaude her effort and class.”
In her previous post on Sunday, Ross also paid homage to Williams with a text post. The post contains an excerpt from an article written by Rebecca Traister. Ross shared additional text in the caption as well, along with the words, “Today on the Cut, #RebeccaTraister writes about @SerenaWilliams, the game that can’t be won (yet), and what rage costs a woman.”
