NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka told television host Ellen DeGeneres that Serena Williams said she was “proud” of her during the trophy ceremony while boos filled the stadium.
Osaka appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” Wednesday. She says Williams also whispered to her “the crowd wasn’t booing at me. So I was really happy that she said that.”
Williams was docked a point and a game for three code violations. She received one for verbal abuse from the chair umpire late in the chaotic second set.
Williams asked the crowd to stop booing and put her arm around the tearful 20-year-old.
Osaka says she “did kind of think they were booing at me. I couldn’t tell what was going on because it was just so loud in there. So it was a little bit stressful.”
Ellen took a selfie with Osaka and texted it to her guest’s favorite celebrity, “Black Panther” co-star Michael B. Jordan.
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