A Lesson in Leadership From the U.S. Open: raceAhead

In a historic match-up for the ages, defending champion Naomi Osaka bested up-and-coming star Coco Gauff on Saturday, winning the last eight games in a 6-3, 6-0 third-round victory, and ending the talented teen’s near–magical run.

But what happened next was both a balm for a troubled time and a profound leadership lesson.

Osaka asked the tearful Gauff to break protocol and stay on the court to join the post-match interview. Gauff demurred at first. “I said no because I knew I was going to cry the whole time,” she told ESPN, crying the whole time. She said was going to learn a lot from the match and Osaka was amazing. “It’s been amazing… and she’s been so sweet to me so thank you for this.”

When it was Osaka’s turn to speak, she politely waved off a question and instead turned to the stands toward Gauff’s parents. She spoke to them as if they were standing beside her. “You guys raised an amazing player,” she said, fighting back tears of her own. “I remember I used to see you guys training in the same place as us. For me, like the fact that both of us made it, and we’re both still working as hard as we can… I think it’s incredible. And I think you guys are amazing, and I think Coco, you’re amazing.”

The crowd thought it was amazing, too. And it was.

If you haven’t watched it, do yourself a favor.

But despite the emotion on display, it was also amazing for another reason. Tennis, like many “gentleman’s sports,” has long been an elite white boys club, so it’s not surprising that bright lights from another demographic would run into each other. But Osaka not only revealed the deep kinship often felt by diversity trailblazers in any majority-culture professional environment, she reframed what victory can mean in a zero-sum, winner-take-all world.

But it’s worth noting that despite all sorts of “diversity efforts” in education and sports, these beautiful moments may continue to be outliers. There is, in fact, a pipeline issue to worry about.

Derek Thompson writing in The Atlantic explains how kids participating in high school sports declined in 2018 for the first time in 30 years, a trend which promises to continue. But as some kids opt–out for health and safety reasons, plenty of others are pushed out for complex cultural and financial ones.

“The deeper story is that the weed of American-style meritocracy is strangling the roots of youth sports. As parents have recognized that athletic success can burnish college applications, sports have come to resemble just another pre-professional program, with rising costs, hyper-specialization, and massive opportunity-hoarding among the privileged.”

It’s going to take a concerted effort, and yes, a collective reframing of what victory means in a zero-sum, winner-take-all world, to make sure that sport remains safe and accessible to all.

But until then, we have Serena (and Venus) and Naomi and Coco, who are using their enormous talent and popularity to continually take us all to inclusion school.

Proof that victory is fleeting, Osaka lost to Belinda Bencic yesterday, in a 7-5, 6-4 fourth-round win for the Swiss challenger.

But Osaka has already left a lasting mark. Last year, Osaka, the daughter of a Haitian-American father and Japanese mother, became the first Japanese-born tennis player to win a Grand Slam championship. It was an occasion that helped confirm, at least in some quarters, the slow-moving dismantling of conservative Japanese ideas about identity and cultural purity.

And also last year, as Osaka wept under the weight of a disapproving crowd after a controversial match against her own bright light, Serena Williams, it was Williams who similarly comforted her and encouraged the crowd to embrace Osaka’s excellence, and in this case, her win.

“She played well, and this is her first Grand Slam,” Williams said through tears of her own. “And I know you guys were here rooting and I was rooting too, but let’s make this the best moment that we can.”

Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
@ellmcgirt

On Point

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On Background

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Tamara El-Waylly helps write and produce raceAhead.

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