After holding a match point against top seed and eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the Roland Garros second round, the 26-year-old spoke of her shift in mindset. 

“I have my little book, right?” Osaka smiled in her post-match press conference. “In it today  just wrote: I’m proud of you. And I think for me, like, saying that to myself, it gives me a lot of power, because … sometimes I curse myself out in my head and it’s quite a negative feeling.

“Yeah, I would just say I’m proud of the journey. I’m hoping, hopefully it will get more and more positive.”

Defying all odds

For Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk, Dayana Yastremska and other pro-playing Ukrainians, the stress of competing on tour while war continues in their homeland could be crippling. Instead, those top-30 superstars are drawing on their resilience to not only achieve new tennis highs, but also to provide a beacon of hope for their nation.

The 21-year-old Kostyuk, who has climbed to a career-high No.17 singles rankings after two WTA finals appearances this year, delivered an emotional speech after she was runner-up to Katie Boulter in San Diego.

“I want to say thank you to my family back home. It’s been difficult last couple of nights for Ukraine,” said Kostyuk, who was a first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist at the Australian Open this year. 

“My family is in Ukraine right now and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. But there is nobody who sacrificed more for my career than them. I want to dedicate this small trophy to them. I want them to see me win as much as possible.”

Yastremska, 24, showed similar sentiment after coming through qualifying to reach the Australian Open semifinals. The messages she inscribed on camera lenses in Melbourne carried special meaning for her compatriots.

“I always try to write something for Ukraine, about Ukraine,” she explained of the deep pride she felt in representing her country. “I think it’s my mission here.”

A tragic turn

Pavel Kotov’s biggest career milestone in reaching the Stockholm 2023 final was a bittersweet experience. The 25-year-old was both delighted for his former coach and devastated that his advisor couldn’t be there.

Seven months earlier, Ivan Polyakov had passed away after a short battle with cancer. Kotov dedicated his Stockholm run to his coach’s memory.

With his first Grand Slam main-draw win at Australian Open 2024 followed by wins over 23rd seed Cameron Norrie and former champion Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros, Pavel is now proud to build on his progress.

“It was really tough for me to recover, to come back after this. So for now, of course, I remember everything,” said Kotov, who hit world No.51 in singles after his career-best run in Paris. “I understand for now that he’s somewhere close to me, and he wanted me to play for sure, and to go as high as I can.”

One courageous moment

Growing up in a small town in India, Sumit Nagal would spend up to 10 hours each day playing cricket. When his father suggested Nagal try another activity, tennis grabbed the young athlete’s interest.

At age 10, he was among thousands of children vying for the attention of former doubles No.1 Mahesh Bhupathi, who was setting up an academy to support the development of Indian players. With one courageous moment, a young Nagal dramatically changed his sporting future.

RELATED: Bhupathi, Tendulkar supporting Indian trailblazer Nagal 

“I was hitting with the other kids and there was a moment where I went to Mahesh and said, ‘Mr. Bhupathi, could you please look at my game?’. I knew who he was, so I grabbed his hand and asked him to look at my game,” Nagal told ATPTour.com.

“After that, it’s apparently when he told my family that they’re going to take me. I was one of just a few thousand people there and only three got selected. That’s the one line that changed my life. If I didn’t tell him this, I would not be sitting here right now. My family didn’t have enough money to support me when I was young. I’m very proud that I did it at that age.”

Sitting at a career-high No.77 in a career-best 2024 season, the 26-year-old Nagal will never forget the moment that changed his life trajectory.

A key relationship

It’s no coincidence that Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter’s respective career-best seasons have developed hand-in-hand with their growing prominence as a power couple on tour.

De Minaur described the support that the pair provide for each other after a momentous weekend in which they each lifted big singles trophies (De Minaur defending his Acapulco title and his British girlfriend triumphing in San Diego).

“The biggest thing that is helping us is that we are both quite different players, and this way we’ve been able to help each other in different sides and attributes of the game and really push each other to strive for bigger and better things,” De Minaur told The AO Show.