U.S.A.
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
September 17, 2018
Osaka, 20, beats idol Serena to win the U.S. Open
GRAND SLAM CHAMP. Naomi Osaka of
Japan returns a shot during a match at the U.S.
Open tennis tournament in New York. Osaka beat
Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 to become the first Grand
Slam singles champion from Japan. (AP Photo/
Frank Franklin II)
By Brian Mahoney
AP Sports Writer
EW YORK — Naomi Osaka
walked to the net, the excitement
of being a Grand Slam champion
mixed with a bit of sadness.
She grew up rooting for Serena Wil-
liams, even did a report on her way back in
third grade. Her dream was to play her idol
at the U.S. Open.
So when she had actually done it,
beating Williams 6-2, 6-4 to become the
first Grand Slam singles champion from
Japan, why was it so difficult?
“Because I know that, like, she really
wanted to have the 24th Grand Slam,
right?” Osaka said. “Everyone knows
this. It’s on the commercials, it’s every-
where.
“When I step onto the court, I feel like a
different person, right? I’m not a Serena
fan. I’m just a tennis player playing
another tennis player. But then when I
hugged her at the net ... I felt like a little
kid again.”
Osaka teared up as she was finishing
her answer, still overwhelmed as she
juggled the idea of her winning and
Williams losing.
Though her nerves on the tennis court
don’t show it, it was a reminder of just how
youthful the 20-year-old Osaka is. Not
since Maria Sharapova was 19 in 2006 has
the U.S. Open had a younger women’s
champion.
The way Williams lost, of course, was
what stood out most in the match. The
arguments with chair umpire Carlos
Ramos and the three code violations — one
that gave Osaka a game for a 5-3 lead in
the second set when Williams was trying to
rally — will be what was most
remembered.
But not for Osaka, who claimed to not
even hear the interactions between
Williams and Ramos. What will stay with
her is the hug at the net afterward, and
Williams’ kind words during the trophy
presentation, when she asked a booing
crowd to focus its intention on Osaka’s
moment.
“So for me, I’m always going to
remember the Serena that I love,” Osaka
said. “It doesn’t change anything for me.
N
She was really nice to me, like, at the net
and on the podium. I don’t really see what
would change.”
Osaka was nervous before the final,
making a few phone calls to her sister in
Paris to calm her down. Even during the
Virtual learning: Using AI, immersion to teach Chinese
By Michael Hill
The Associated Press
ROY, N.Y. — To learn Chinese in
this room, talk to the floating
panda head.
The Mandarin-speaking avatar zips
around a 360-degree restaurant scene in
an
artificial
intelligence-driven
instruction program that looks like a giant
video game. Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti-
tute (RPI) students testing the technology
move inside the 12-foot-high, wraparound
projection to order virtual bean curd from
the panda waiter, chat with Beijing
market sellers, and practice tai chi by
mirroring moves of a watchful mentor.
“Definitely less anxiety than messing it
up with a real human being,” says Rahul
Divekar, a computer science graduate stu-
dent working on the project. “So compared
to that anxiety, this is a lot more easy.”
The “Mandarin Project” is a joint ven-
ture of RPI and IBM. Cognitive and Im-
mersive Systems Laboratory researchers
are developing a sort of smart room that
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Solution to
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All solutions available at
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match, whenever she was faced with a
tough spot, she kept telling herself to try to
do what Williams would do.
Williams was certainly impressed.
“She was so focused,” the 36-year-old
Williams said. “I think, you know,
whenever I had a break point, she came up
with some great serve. Honestly, there’s a
lot I can learn from her from this match. I
hope to learn a lot from that.”
It was that way throughout the tourna-
ment for Osaka, who won the second title
of her career. She was mostly dominant,
dropping only one set in her seven
matches, and she saved five of six break
points against Williams after erasing all
13 in the semifinals against Madison Keys.
That’s the kind of toughness Williams
has so often shown in winning 23 Grand
Slam singles titles, one shy of the record.
It’s one of the things Osaka always
admired about Williams, and made her
choose her as the topic of that report years
ago.
“I colored it and everything,” Osaka
said. “I said, ‘I want to be like her.’”
On that day, she was better.
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VIRTUAL CLASSROOM. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) graduate student Xiangyang Mou prac-
tices tai chi with an avatar in a campus studio at RPI in Troy, New York, in this August 22, 2018 file image taken
from video. The “Mandarin Project” is a joint venture of RPI and IBM. Cognitive and Immersive Systems Labora-
tory researchers are developing a sort of smart room that can understand students’ words, answer their ques-
tions, and perceive their gestures. (AP Photo/Michael Hill)
can understand students’ words, answer Mandarin Project say it isn’t sophisticated
their questions, and perceive their enough right now to completely replace
gestures. Lessons are presented as games classroom instruction.
RPI president Shirley Ann Jackson
or tasks, like ordering a meal out.
foresees
the same type of technology being
Divekar orders Peking duck — Beijng
kaoya — and the panda fetches the virtual applied to other spaces, such as corporate
dish. Divekar says the food was good — Cai boardrooms. When the executives discuss
hen hao chi — but he can’t pay the bill. No a potential acquisition, the room will
problem, the panda replies — ni keyi xi pan follow the group discussion and produce
relevant information seamlessly into the
zi — you can wash the dishes.
Other scenes include an outdoor market debate.
and a garden, each a high-tech twist on
“We’re not at the end of the line,”
cultural immersion.
Jackson says, “but closer to the beginning.”
“Our plan is to complete several scenes
Wanted: New Oregon
of real life in China, to let the student be
Supreme Court justice
able to have a virtual trip over there,” said
Hui Su, director of the lab at RPI.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Governor Kate
Tests on the room with students Brown
announced
she’s
accepting
studying Mandarin will continue this applications to fill a pending vacancy on
school year as they work on additional the Oregon Supreme Court, created by the
scenes, including an airport. A six-week
retirement of Justice Rives Kistler on
course is being readied for the summer.
December 31.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is
Brown said she’s looking for applicants
ubiquitous in everything from call-center
with a wide variety of backgrounds and
chat-bots to home assistants. Even some
experiences.
language instruction products on the
Earlier this year, the court gained its
market feature AI or virtual reality.
first black judge when Brown appointed
The Mandarin Project is notable for its
scale and sophistication. Computers Adrienne Nelson. In 2015, an Asian-
simultaneously interpret speech and American woman, Lynn Nakamoto,
gesture to keep a dialogue going. When a became the first minority woman on the
student points to a picture and asks bench.
Kistler, 69, expressed gratitude for the
“What’s that?” computers can come up
privilege of working with appellate courts
with an answer.
And feedback is immediate. When and lawyers.
Chief Justice Martha Walters called him
Divekar orders dou fu — or tofu — a voice
responds “here’s how close you got” and a brilliant thinker who cares deeply about
illustrates it with a graph of his the law and people.
When Kistler was appointed to the
intonation. Another voice gives the precise
Supreme Court in 2003, he became the
pronunciation.
Still, language teachers need not fear for first openly-LGBT state Supreme Court
their jobs just yet. Developers of the justice in America.